Vou encaminhar o plástico para a cooperativa.

Because Portuguese often leaves the subject pronoun out when the verb already makes it clear.

Here, vou clearly means I am going / I’m going to, so eu is not necessary.

• Vou encaminhar o plástico... = natural
• Eu vou encaminhar o plástico... = also correct, but slightly more explicit or emphatic

You might add eu if you want contrast, emphasis, or clarity.

This is the very common Brazilian Portuguese future pattern ir + infinitive:

• vou encaminhar

It is often more natural in everyday speech than the simple future:

• encaminharei

Both are correct, but they feel different:

• vou encaminhar = common, conversational, natural
• encaminharei = more formal, written, official, or stiff in normal conversation

So this sentence sounds very natural in Brazilian Portuguese.

In this context, encaminhar means something like send on, direct, forward, or route to the proper place.

It is not just the basic idea of physically carrying something. It often suggests that something is being sent to the appropriate destination or handled according to a process.

So in a recycling context, encaminhar o plástico para a cooperativa suggests that the plastic will be directed or sent to the cooperative for proper processing.

Yes, very often.

• Vou levar o plástico para a cooperativa sounds very natural if you mean you are physically taking it there yourself.
• Vou encaminhar o plástico para a cooperativa sounds a little more procedural or administrative, as if you are making sure it gets sent there correctly.

So the difference is roughly:

• levar = take/carry
• encaminhar = send/direct/forward to the right place

In many real situations, both could work.

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English does.

Here, o plástico can mean:

• the specific plastic being discussed
• plastic as the category/material being handled

In recycling language, it is very common to talk about materials this way:

• o papel
• o vidro
• o plástico
• o metal

In English, the plastic can sometimes sound unusual, but in Portuguese this is very normal.

Because here plástico is being treated as a material or category, not as separate individual objects.

So:

• o plástico = plastic as a substance/category
• os plásticos = plastic items, plastic objects, or different plastics

In a recycling context, singular is very common because people often talk about materials in bulk:

• o papel
• o vidro
• o plástico

Para a cooperativa is the standard, neutral form.

In everyday speech, Brazilians very often say:

• pra cooperativa

Here, pra is just the informal spoken contraction of para a.

You may also see or hear:

• encaminhar o plástico à cooperativa

That version is possible too, but it sounds more formal or bureaucratic. So the main difference is style:

• para a cooperativa = standard and neutral
• pra cooperativa = informal and very common in speech
• à cooperativa = more formal

Because cooperativa is a countable noun, and in this sentence it normally refers to a specific cooperative, even if it is not named.

So para a cooperativa is the expected form.

Without the article, para cooperativa, the sentence sounds incomplete or unnatural in standard Portuguese.

The only very common shorter form is pra cooperativa, but that already includes the article, because pra = para a.

In Brazil, in a sentence like this, cooperativa often means a recycling cooperative.

These are groups or organizations that collect, sort, and process recyclable materials. In many places, people may simply say a cooperativa when everyone already understands they mean the recycling cooperative.

So even though the full phrase could be cooperativa de reciclagem, shortening it to cooperativa is very natural if the context is clear.

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

en-kah-mee-NYAR

A few important points:

• the stress is on the last syllable: -nhar
• nh sounds like ny in canyon
• the final r in Brazilian Portuguese is not pronounced like a strong English r

So encaminhar should not sound like en-cam-in-har with a separate English h sound. The nh is one combined sound.