Under the recycling laws enacted in recent years in Chile, such as Law 20,920 of 2016, called Law REP (Law for the Promotion and Extended Responsibility of Recycling Producers), whose main objective is to establish an industry that is to Take responsibility for its products by preventing the generation of waste and its recovery and recycling; and Law 21,100 of 2018 which prohibits the delivery of commercial plastic bags throughout the national territory, in the coming days the Law will be published that will regulate the “Single-use plastic”, which would come into force in early 2022, and whose application will be done gradually over a maximum period of 3 years.
The law will prohibit the delivery of disposable plastics – such as cutlery, plates, cups, trays, shakers, lamps, feather items, packages, and sauce sachets, among others – which are sold in restaurants, bars, cafes, supermarkets, bakeries, warehouses or fast food outlets, either for consumption within the premises or for delivery.
Only disposable plastics made from compostable material may be used. That is, the plastic items would have to be made with organic material that can completely degrade in 1 year.
The other condition that exists to be able to use these disposable plastics is that the said product is composed of at least 20% recycled material.
The ban also extends to single-use cardboard or aluminum, as everything must be reused.
Failure to comply with this law will result in fines -which will benefit the municipality- between 1 and 5 UTM for each product delivered that does not comply with the regulations, that is, between CLP 50,000 and CLP 250,000 approximately.
Our Law Firm periodically monitors this and other rules to keep our clients updated with changes related to their activity.
Our team is on hand to provide you with more detailed information on the subject, so please do not hesitate to contact us through one of our communication channels.
