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:
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.
After the Chilean government took a leading role by being amongst the very first governments to sign the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment last October, we are looking forward to working together with the government and industry in Chile to drive real change towards a circular economy for plastics. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation welcomes the announcement of the Chilean Plastics Pact and is looking forward to a fruitful collaboration in its global Plastics Pact network.
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.
It is estimated 8 millions tons of plastic reach to our ocean every year and the 70% of it stays in the seabed, severely polluting our ecosystems. As country, we took the first step by prohibiting the delivery of plastic bags in the market, but now we must go further, working with all the stakeholders to face this problem that affects the world and seeks solutions that allow to us live in a cleaner and more sustainable country.
We must generate a circular logic for our way forward. The Chilean Plastics Pact is aligned with that vision in which economic growth is decoupled from the use of finite resources and the harm of our environment. It is also part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s international Plastics Pact Network which is absolutely key to achieving the collective impact we need to change history.