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HOW PRODUCTIVE SECTORS AND INFRASTRUCTURE CAN
CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEFENSE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Fernando Alcoforado *
Every human enterprise generates environmental impact, to a greater or lesser extent, in
its implementation and operation. Among the environmental impacts, highlight waste
disposal during deployment, and products and wastes during operation of the projects in
the productive sectors described below: 1) complexes and industrial plants (oil,
petrochemical, steel, chlorine chemical) and agribusiness (distilleries alcohol, coal,
extraction and cultivation of water resources), 2) industrial districts and industrial areas
strictly; 3) Production agribusiness, and, 4) economic exploitation of wood or firewood.
Among the environmental impacts of projects in infrastructure include the following: 1)
Power electricity generation, whatever the primary energy source, including the
installation of wind farms, 2) transmission lines for electricity, 3) Transportation air,
sea, road, rail, water and pipeline road; 4) Roads, railways, ports, airports, pipelines,
pipelines, trunk sewer collectors and outfalls; 5) hydraulic works for purposes of
sanitation, drainage, irrigation, grinding catchments, watershed transposition, navigation
canals, dams, dikes, 6) Extraction of fossil fuel (oil shale, coal, natural gas) and mining
on land and at sea; 7) Landfills, processing and destination late toxic or dangerous
waste, and, 8) urban planning projects.
The waste products and residues from these projects can be solid, liquid and gaseous.
To combat pollution of land, air and water in the city and in the countryside, it´s
necessary to do the recycling of products currently used and discarded and waste. In this
perspective, the products currently used and discarded and waste when used in various
applications, should be primarily recycled to form a new product with the use of reverse
logistics, second, burnt in order to extract all containing energy, especially in the case of
gaseous waste, and only ultimately must be removed to a landfill in the case of solid
waste and thrown in lakes, rivers and ocean after proper treatment in the case of liquid
waste.
From the 1990s, with a constant concern about the use of natural resources, as well as
the accumulation of industrial wastes in large cities, large companies were blamed by
society for this problem. Large organizations now have a new concern, as it would be
possible to find a solution to this problem without generating increased costs and
expenses? With the advent of this scenario emerged the concept of Reverse Logistics.
Defined as Reverse Logistics, the area that plan, operates and controls the flow and
logistics information corresponding to the return of goods after-sales and post-consumer
to the business cycle or the cycle, through the Distribution Channels reverse, adding
value to them of various kinds: economic, ecological, legal, competitive, corporate
image, among others.
While Traditional Logistics deals with the flow of product from the factory to the
customer, Reverse Logistics deals with the return of products, materials and parts of the
final consumer in the production process of the company. Due to severe existing
environmental legislation and also by the great influence of society and non-
governmental organizations, companies are adopting the use of a higher percentage of
recycled material to its production process, and have also adopted procedures for the
proper disposal of products cannot be reused or recycled. Reverse logistics is the
logistics area that is therefore the return of products or packaging materials for its

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production center. Reverse logistics in the recycling process causes the material to
return to different production centers in the form of raw material. Management activities
of reverse logistics predict the reuse and removal of waste and management of returns.
In many companies, it was shown that a small investment in the management of reverse
logistics results in substantial savings. The Reverse Logistics is the last frontier for cost
reduction. Reverse logistics applies to all physical flows reverse, ie, the point of origin
to the consumption or deposition in a safe packaging, end-of-life products, returns, etc..,
having the most varied application areas. Physical flows in the opposite direction are
connected to new industries reuse of products or materials in order life cycle, such as
waste and debris, transformation of certain types of waste, products damaged or object
complaint and consequent return, return and recycling used packaging, vehicles and
other equipment at end of life. The main issue of the Reverse Logistics is the viability of
the return of goods through its reintegration into the production cycle or business and
for this to occur, it is necessary to develop a first step analysis of these goods and after-
sales post-consumption in order to define the status of these goods and determine the
process in which must be submitted.
The Reverse Logistics Aftermarket is an area of operation of Reverse Logistics which
handles the addressing and operation of the physical flow of logistics information and
corresponding goods aftermarket, unused or little use, that for different reasons to return
different links in the chain of direct distribution, which constitute a part of the channels
through which flow Reverse these products. In turn, Reverse Logistics Post-
consumption is a practice area of Reverse Logistics that equates and operationalizes
physical flow and information related to post-consumer goods discarded by society in
general returning to the business cycle or the cycle production through distribution
channels specific reverse. Constitute goods post-consumer products at end of life or
used with possibility of using and general waste industrial.
Logistical and financial gains are just some of the benefits that reverse logistics is able
to provide. There are also gains to the corporate image of the organization to adopt a
posture environmentally friendly, attracting attention and preference not only for
customers, but also consumers. Initiatives related to reverse logistics have brought
considerable returns for companies. Savings with the use of returnable containers or
reuse of materials for production have brought gains that increasingly stimulating new
initiative. The reuse of materials is one of the processes that are part of the dynamics of
reverse logistics, and is one of the aspects that have potential to add value to materials
returnable reverse process. The use of reverse logistics as a means of competitive
advantage is very important for the company. Achieving competitive advantage is one
of the main factors that lead organizations to implement the reverse process of
distribution.
* Alcoforado, Fernando, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic planning, business planning,
regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,

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Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011) and Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), among others.