Against the backdrop of accelerated global advancement in the circular economy, the recycling industry is expanding from mere resource recycling to diversified value. As a renowned information service platform for China’s non-ferrous metals sector, Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) has long focused on the recycling segment, building a comprehensive service ecosystem for renewable resource recycling that encompasses data, news, price benchmarks, industry conferences and supply-demand matchmaking. The annual Battery Recycling and Circular Industry Conference (GBRC) organized by SMM has grown into one of China’s largest and most influential industry events in the renewable resources sector. Meanwhile in Brazil, across the ocean, a non-profit organization is interpreting the social value of recycling in an alternative way: repurposing scrap materials into tools for robotics education to open the door to the digital world for children in public schools.
Founded in 2016, Sementes do Vale is a non-profit organization dedicated to sports, culture, education, technology, vocational training and social psychological support. Its flagship initiative, the e-Ducar (Educational Robotics with Scrap Materials), centers on the dual pillars of "recycling plus education" and reduces educational inequality by democratizing access to digital education for students and public schools through educational robotics, computational thinking for understanding Artificial Intelligence, and STEAM methodology.
To date, the programme has served 38 public schools across 7 cities in 2 Brazilian states, trained 164 teachers, and directly benefited 4,331 students. More importantly, it is not a one-off workshop, but rather a path designed so robotics enters the school and stays there, even after we leave.
How It Works
Four Steps, One Complete Ecosystem
E-Ducar project's core competitiveness lies in its design of a fully integrated implementation pathway that covers everything from teacher training to teaching materials, from hardware to curriculum standards, ensuring that schools can independently conduct robotics courses even after the project withdraws.
Step-1: Teacher Training
The heart of the project. Free in-person training for public-school educators: robotics fundamentals, block-based programming, computational thinking, and how to integrate everything into the school curriculum.
Step-2: Materials and Video Lessons
Each teacher leaves with a complete pedagogical kit: ready-to-use lesson plans, an e-book, hands-on activities with scrap materials, and video lessons on YouTube. Everything is open, free, and permanently available.
Step-3: Free robotics kits
Each partner school or education department receives robotics kits to use in classes with its students.
Step-4: Aligned with Brazil's national curriculum
Digital education became mandatory by law in Brazilian schools, and the project materials were structured to support this adaptation through educational robotics, computational thinking, and STEAM methodology.
Robotics Is a Right, Not a Privilege for the Few
Robotics is a right, but it reaches very few. Even with Law No. 14,533/2023 guaranteeing the right to digital education, most Brazilian public schools have never offered a robotics class. e-Ducar was born to change that statistic, one classroom at a time.
From the perspective of the recycling industry, this also represents a deep extension of circular economy principles into society: at the industrial end, scrap metals and waste electronic components re-enter the industry chain through regenerated smelting, while in the education sector, they can similarly be creatively reassembled into tools for inspiring the next generation’s interest in technology. Just as SMM has long advocated the concept of "full life cycle resource circulation," the value of recycling is reflected not only in metal recovery rates and economic benefits but also in the long-term value of sustainable development.
Support the Project
If you are an educator, school leader, education department, or company that wants to support us, let's talk. Robotics from the Sertão can be where you are.
Building Communication Platform Between China and the World: SMM Supports Global Circular Science Education Public Welfare
As a professional information service platform serving the global renewable resources and battery recycling sectors, SMM has long dedicated itself to research on recycled metals and lithium battery recycling as well as building platforms for industrial supply and demand exchange. Beyond these core businesses, SMM has consistently incorporated sustainable public welfare initiatives into its long-term corporate social responsibility strategy.
SMM will continue to monitor non-profit organizations worldwide that deliver inclusive science and technology education using recycled materials. The e-Ducar programme stands out as an exemplary social innovation that SMM supports.
Backing non-profit organizations such as Sementes do Vale to advance the e-Ducar initiative not only fosters inclusive education and mitigates educational inequality across Latin America, but also serves as an effective channel for the industry to popularize circular economy knowledge and disseminate sustainable development concepts.
Moving forward, SMM will keep building communication platforms between industrial players from China and overseas non-profit organizations, encouraging more recycling enterprises to participate in cross-border science and education support programmes. By leveraging industrial expertise to empower equitable sustainable education globally, SMM will fully implement integrated ESG practices that deliver environmental benefits, social value and long-term development.
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