Solid waste is one of the most discussed topics on the agenda of environmental issues, especially in large urban centers. Many studies and scientific publications have focused on different phenomena related to the producing, collecting, disposing and recycling of urban waste, which leads to a growing concern about the destination of packaging after consumption. This article intends to promote a dialogue between reverse logistics and the packaging life cycle in order to better understand the possibilities, challenges and management dilemmas regarding the packaging end-of-life. It analyzes the recycling of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) packaging questioning the factors that promote and limit the expansion of environmental management strategies in Brazil. Recently, with multiple uses in the industrial production, PET has become a constant presence in consumers' daily routine and important challenges have arisen to understand the complex recycling chain and possibilities of more advanced practices and policies of environmental management. Developing the case study adopted different strategies, involving secondary data-collecting made by public organizations and specialized institutions as well as semi-structured interviews and analysis of documents. The results pointed out that although there are significant advances in the amount of recycling PET, there are important challenges to be overcome such as the laws that regulate the reverse chain, technological and management innovation strategies and mainly the interaction of chain actors. Furthermore, it is possible to foresee that this issue assumes the increase of the population information level; elimination of waste since its conception, technological development, shared responsibilities, recycling and above all, the change of the present consumption behavior pattern.
recycling; packaging life cycle; pet packaging; reverse logistics; environment management
