May/June 2012
Adriano Assi has dedicated his career to advancing his native country’s sucata, or scrap, industry. To date he has launched an industry magazine and trade show and raised the industry’s international profile. What’s next for this ambitious scrap ambassador?
By Kent Kiser
Geography was one of Adriano Assi’s favorite subjects as a young student in São Paulo, which is fitting because today he’s putting Brazil’s recycling industry on the map. At 37, Assi already has owned two recycling facilities, launched a magazine that covers Brazil’s recycling industry, organized the first and largest recycling trade show in Latin America, spoken about the Brazilian market at international recycling events, exhibited at recycling expositions around the world (including ISRI’s convention), and appeared in various media in several countries. His ambitious goals are to bring order to the Brazilian recycling industry, increase its professionalism, and give it a higher profile in the international recycling community. Ultimately, he dreams of establishing a national trade association to represent Brazilian recyclers and give them a unified voice—a Brazilian ISRI, if you will. That goal remains elusive, but Assi is confident it will happen someday. Persistence is one of his greatest assets, he says, and he has needed plenty of it to succeed in his pioneering efforts. “Every obstacle is easier to overcome with persistence, positive thinking, and a smile on your face,” he says. “It’s all about how you face challenges in your life.”
Assi works and travels relentlessly. Last year, he says, he drove more than 16,000 miles and flew thousands of additional miles to visit prospects and customers inside and outside of Brazil to promote his magazine and trade shows and tout the evolution of his country’s recycling industry. “Nothing can replace personal contact,” he explains, “so I’m always on the road.” Scrap caught up with Brazil’s recycling road warrior recently to hear about his accomplishments so far and his plans going forward.
What is your earliest memory about recycling?
In the early ’80s, a garrafeiro—Portuguese for bottle man, or peddler—used to pull a cart down our street in São Paulo to collect glass bottles. He had a distinctive whistle and would shout “garrafeiroooo” so people would come out of their houses and give him their glass bottles.
How did you get introduced to the recycling industry?
In early 1999, while I was in college, I had a dot-com startup project going, and I occasionally had meetings at a UBC recycling company’s office. While I was there, I thought, “This business might be profitable.” After I graduated—and when my dot-com idea didn’t work out—I drafted a business plan to start a recycling company.
What was it about the recycling business that appealed to you?
I liked the idea of making money on materials that people discard because they have no idea of their value as industrial raw materials. Recycling seemed like a market with lots of opportunities, and one that could grow very fast. It sounded like Eldorado [the legendary City of Gold]. In late 1999, I opened two recycling facilities under the name Ecobrasil Reciclagem. The first one, in South Brazil, handled UBCs; the second one, in São Paulo, recycled UBCs and other nonferrous metals and plastics.
What did you like and dislike about running your own recycling operations?
I liked that the business had no routine; every day was different. I also felt I was helping the environment. At the South Brazil operation, I paid our suppliers directly, which made me feel good because they were poor people. The business also offered the opportunity for even my small company to work globally. On the downside, it was hard to play by the book and pay my company’s taxes when many of my competitors didn’t [pay theirs]. I also disliked the old mentality in the business of wanting to “keep things as they are,” ignoring that recycling now is a global market. So I decided to close my yards. Fortunately, times have changed, and the Brazilian recycling industry is different today.
When and why did you start your magazine, Reciclagem Moderna?
I started the magazine when I closed my recycling operations in 2005. Back then, few Brazilians knew about recycling, and the Brazilian media didn’t cover it very often. The articles I did find focused on the social and environmental aspects of recycling; there was little information on the for-profit side of the business. I felt that a link was missing. So I founded Ecobrasil Editora, which today is an eight-employee publishing company and event organizer with six brands: Reciclagem Moderna, a bimonthly business-to-business magazine that reaches 8,000 readers; ExpoSucata, MercoApara, and Reciclaplast, a three-in-one recycling convention and trade show that covers metal, paper, and plastics recycling (apara means “paper cutlets” in Portuguese); Brasil Recicla, a small recycling convention we take on the road to debate recycling issues regionally; and—new this year—ExpoLixo, an exhibition of equipment and solutions to help Brazil’s municipalities handle the collection and pre-processing of recyclables. (Lixo means “waste” or “trash” in Portuguese.)
Was it difficult to launch a new recycling magazine in Brazil?
Yes. Because there were no previous recycling media in Brazil, there was no advertising culture, and potential advertisers saw advertising as a cost rather than an investment. It was pretty hard at the beginning, and we continue to have to educate prospects about the importance of advertising, then convince them to advertise in our magazine. Unfortunately, many manufacturers remain skeptical about advertising in print media. They believe that buying Google ads will attract all the qualified potential buyers they need. I tell them that the Internet is one medium they should consider, but nothing beats a trade publication that specializes in their market.
When and why did you start ExpoSucata?
After I launched the magazine, ExpoSucata seemed like a natural move. I already had experience in event planning and marketing consulting from my college years. The challenge was persuading manufacturers to believe in a new exhibition, so we started small. Our first show, held in 2006 in a hotel in São Paulo, had 16 booths and filled 3,200 square feet. In six years, the show has grown to 80 booths covering 160,000 square feet in the Centro de Exposições Imigrantes in São Paulo, with about 3,000 visitors from Latin America and other continents. The show has grown 20 to 40 percent a year since 2009, thanks mainly to the quality of its attendees. Brazil has a culture of free entrance to trade shows, but we’ve worked hard to make our show selective. People must register online for ExpoSucata, then we decide whether to allow them to attend. We deny about 30 percent of all applicants. In our view, the higher-quality audience brings better—and more—exhibitors to the show.
What are your aspirations for the magazine and expo?
I’d love to take Reciclagem Moderna monthly and perhaps offer an English edition so recyclers around the world could learn more about Brazil and its recycling market. For ExpoSucata, I dream about making it as big as the ReMA convention is today. An international recycling journalist friend told me that ExpoSucata already is the second-largest recycling exhibition in the world, after ISRI. I was flattered to hear that.
Speaking of ISRI, when and how did you hear about it?
I first learned about ReMA in 2000, when I was looking for publications about recycling markets and equipment outside of Brazil. That’s how I learned about Scrap. I attended my first ReMA convention in 2001, in San Antonio, in search of more information, equipment, opportunities, and knowledge. There, I met Arnold Fish of Lake Shore Metal Recycling (Evanston, Ill.), who invited me to lunch. He suggested that I come to Chicago and work in one of the Cozzi family’s recycling facilities in the city. I’m very grateful for the opportunities Arnold Fish and Frank Cozzi gave me. Since 2001, I’ve only missed one ReMA convention. All of them were great, but I especially recall the 2007 convention, when ReMA invited me to speak about the Brazilian market, and the 2011 event, when my company debuted as an exhibitor in the ReMA expo hall.
How has your involvement in ReMA helped your efforts in Brazil?
ISRI has supported me in many ways. It has allowed ReMA staff to speak at ExpoSucata and shared ideas on how to build a national recycling association in Brazil. That dream, unfortunately, has not come true yet.
What’s preventing you from establishing a Brazilian recycling association?
Our market isn’t mature enough to build an association with the same importance and lobbying power as ISRI. The first question potential members always have is, “How much will it cost?” rather than “How much will this benefit the Brazilian recycling industry and my company?” Nobody is interested in investing money in something that will help everybody. That old mentality has to change. It’s a shame because the Brazilian recycling industry is missing a historic opportunity that might not come again.
What do you mean?
Brazil is about to implement a new national policy for solid residues—which includes recyclables—that will change the industry by boosting recycling rates and stimulating the market like never before. Under the new law, curbside collection will be mandatory for the majority of the 5,565 cities in Brazil. Today, less than 8 percent of our cities have curbside collection, and most of those cities don’t even serve about 40 percent of their streets. So we have a lot of room for improvement.
What other changes do you expect to see in Brazil’s recycling industry?
Our market is becoming more global, thanks to our efforts to discuss and promote Brazil internationally at every opportunity. Those efforts include interviews like this one, articles on Brazil’s recycling industry in international trade publications, and panels at ExpoSucata that address scrap exports and how to enter that market. Reciclagem Moderna even started a new section on the basics of exporting.
I also see a change in Brazil’s peddler culture, which is the foundation of recycling in our country. Peddlers are starting to become extinct as our economy grows and generates better job opportunities for the poor. This creates a paradox: As our economy grows, it demands more raw materials, but the number of peddlers is decreasing because they are turning away from picking up recyclables on the streets to work at construction sites or other jobs.
How will those changes help or hurt your company?
We expect the Brazilian recycling industry to grow, which is great news for us if we’re ready to seize the opportunities. We plan to launch new products and services in the coming year, and we’re considering opening an advertising, exhibition, and consulting sales office in the United States. The world has turned its eyes to Brazil, and we’re ready to bring more information, suppliers, and consumers to our industry.
Kent Kiser is publisher of Scrap.
An Assi Assessment
Born: Nov. 23, 1974, in São Paulo.
Education: Graduated from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, a private college in São Paulo, in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Favorite movie: The remake of Ocean’s Eleven, mostly because it reminds me of my second ReMA convention, which was at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Favorite drinks: I’m pretty much “flex-fuel.” There’s always a time and place for a good beer,
caipirinha, prosecco, and 18-year-old whiskey.
Favorite foods: Brazilian pizza—by far—then Brazilian barbecue and pintado na telha, a Brazilian fish cooked on a tile in a wood-fired oven.
Favorite places in the world: In the United States, New York and Chicago are my favorites. In Brazil,
I prefer the beach Praia dos Carneiros in the northeast for fun and São Paulo for work and cultural activities. In Europe, I love Verona, Italy, but don’t go there alone—it can get too romantic.
Hobbies: Music—I’m a guitar player whose iPod contains about 40,000 songs. I also love
gadgets/technology and photography.
Proudest accomplishments: Making Reciclagem Moderna a “must-read” magazine for our industry and establishing ExpoSucata as the largest and most important for-profit recycling event in Latin America.
Personal traits you like the most: My persistence, positive thinking, and good humor.
Is there anything you’d like to improve about yourself? I tend to be a perfectionist and do too much work myself rather than delegating to my eight employees.
Is there anything about yourself that would surprise people? I have a collection of badges from the 172 trade shows I have attended. I also have collections of hotel room keys as well as pens I picked up at exhibition booths.
What are your passions? Travel and music.
If you didn’t work in the recycling industry, what would you do? I’d be a stock broker and trader from my home.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years? Traveling more for pleasure, not mostly for work, as I do now.