Eco Conquista, an IMCD Cares initiative, will impact 25,000 residents of Diadema in São Paulo, Brazil

According to a scientific paper published in 2017¹, recycling is considered a great source of energy savings and promoter of CO₂ recovery. In addition, it generates jobs and changes markets around the world. There is a group of people integral to driving the success of a community’s recycling program. Brazil's National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS) recognizes sanitation workers as the main social agent in the recycling process responsible for placing Brazil among the top ten paper recycling countries in the world. Far beyond recycling, sanitation workers are transformers of our environment.

IMCD Brasil operates a distribution warehouse and technical application laboratories in the city of Diadema in the Greater São Paulo, Brazil. The city has a low-performing recycling program due to aged equipment, limited resources and lack of recycling education within the community. While IMCD Brasil has had a corporate reputation for charitable giving towards local environmental and social causes to support its Diadema neighbors, employees were inspired to do even more for the community after learning of the city’s dire needs.

Seeking to create an opportunity to improve the working conditions of Diadema’s cooperative of independent sanitation workers and their dated recycling resources, IMCD Brasil employees applied for a grant from the global IMCD Cares Fund. The IMCD Brasil employees’ passion for helping the community resulted in an IMCD Cares grant that propelled the launch of Eco Conquista.