In 2007, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sent Congress a national solid-waste management bill in an attempt to break a 16-year legislative logjam on the issue. The effect was hardly immediate. But this month, after three years of bargaining in which some provisions that had antagonized business were jettisoned and new ideas consumer groups liked were adopted, a successor-bill to Lula’s legislation won passage in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Brazil’s Congress. Supporters claim that for the first time in years, the political winds are blowing in the direction of enactment of national solid-waste legislation. Finally, they say, Brazil will have the means to rein in illegal dumping and burning, ensure proper disposal of harmful waste... [Log in to read more]