Today, The Plastics Pact network welcomes its first Latin American Plastics Pact: El Pacto Chileno de los Plásticos. The Ministry of Environment and the non-profit corporation Fundación Chile have announced the Chilean Plastics Pact. This national initiative will bring together local businesses, governments, and NGOs to work towards a circular economy for plastics, in which plastics never become waste.
Following the launch of the French National Pact on Plastics Packaging in February and The UK Plastic Pact less than a year ago, the Chilean Plastics Pact is the third national initiative joining the Foundation’s Plastics Pact network.
By bringing together national and regional initiatives from around the world, the Plastics Pact network provides a unique platform of collaboration and knowledge exchange to implement solutions towards a circular economy for plastics.
The Chilean Plastics Pact
The Chilean Plastics Pact kicks off with Amcor, Nestlé, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, Soprole, Mall Plaza and Resiter, along with public organisations including the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Economy, the Production Development Corporation (CORFO) and the Climate Change Agency; the Association of Municipalities for Environmental Sustainability (AMUSA); the Extended Producer Responsibility Organisation (SIG), and the non-profit organisation Plastic Oceans.
Aligned with other national initiatives of the Plastics Pact network, The Chilean Plastics Pact will work towards a set of ambitious, time-bound targets in the following areas:
- Eliminate unnecessary and problematic single-use plastic packaging through redesign and innovation
- Ensure all plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable
- Increase the reuse, collection, and recycling of plastic packaging
- Increase recycled content in plastic packaging
The exact targets will be released in June, and progress will be reported annually. The initiative aims to mobilise a growing number of participants in the country after the formal launch in June this year.
Plastics pollution is the result of a broken take, make, and dispose system. We need to change that system and to do that we need businesses, governments, organisations, and citizens around the world to work together.
That is why we are delighted to welcome the Chilean Plastics Pact, led by Fundacion Chile, in our Plastics Pact global network, pioneering the efforts around a circular economy for plastics in Latin America. By empowering new levels of collaboration and innovation; we can rethink how we make, use, and reuse plastics, not only addressing urgent environmental issues but also realising massive economic opportunities.
- Luisa Santiago, Brazil Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation