Rio de Janeiro’s samba school parade has made history with its record-breaking accomplishment in recycling aluminium beverage cans. The Guinness Book of World Records enlisted this as the World’s biggest aluminium beverage can recycling programme.
During the Carnival that extended from 17th to 20th February and on the 25th of the month, about 10 tonnes of aluminium beverage cans were accumulated.
The Rio Carnival can be anointed as the largest and one of the most special celebratory festivities in the World. The event can be treated as an epitome of sustainability drives internationally.
Major non-profit organisations heavily participated in the Carnival, like Abralatas, the Brazilian Association of Aluminum Can Manufacturers, Every Can Count’s Brazilian division, and Cada Lata Conta. Together they provided an official outhouse at the Sambadrome to collect, sort and store almost 100% of the aluminium cans for recycling.
Each activity was planned in collaboration with the Independent League of Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro (Liesa); SESC – the owner of the official title, through the Recicla Sapucaí Project, advertised by the Sustainability Fecomércio Institute (IFeS); alongside Recicla Rio, Movimento, and Febracom, which are recycling organisations situated in Rio de Janeiro.
Though 100 of the 120 total participants were not solely focused on collecting beverage or aluminium packaging solutions, all of them were equally important in heightening awareness about recyclable products. Moreover, aluminium is 100% recyclable and can be processed infinite times without losing its actual properties. All the members and participants in the Rio Carnival promoted this, irrespective of their individual contributions. The worldwide switch from plastic or glass solutions to aluminium cans was widely propagated.
The executive president of Abralatas, Cátilo Cândido, narrated: “Rio was already famous for its astonishing natural beauty, samba and Carnival. Now it enters the World Stage for its recycling legacy. We rely on the paramount work of the recycling professionals in Rio as true environmental agents once more.”
“Being acknowledged by Guinness demonstrates that we are on the right track, showing the World that it is possible to make such a huge event sustainable,” Cândido concluded.
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