Brazil's São Paulo State Environmental Agency required a confidential client in the Chemical sector to excavate and dispose of over 200,000 tons of hazardous waste from a former on-site landfill in São Paulo in order for its site operations permit to be renewed. ERM was engaged to work with the agency to carry out several investigations and determine the activity level of the landfill.

After nearly five years of environmental assessments, remediation activities and intensive interactions with the company and the agency, ERM developed a comprehensive maintenance plan for leaving the landfill in place. The agency withdrew its request with the approval of the landfill maintenance plan developed by ERM.

The effort to remove the landfill would have taken approximately 6,500 truck trips between the site and the landfill, equivalent to approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles). At the end, not removing the landfill resulted in savings of 1,370,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.