Focus on the REP law and the challenge of collaborative and responsible work

Chile was the second country in Latin America to enact an Extended Producer Responsibility (REP) law, which from 2023 will oblige producing companies, manufacturers and importers of products established as a priority, to reduce the generation of waste through their recovery, moving to a circular economy model.

Almost six years have passed since its publication, and the implementation has had a significant delay -including two years of the pandemic, that have limited the time available to meet the imposed goals within the set deadline.

As Legal Manager of Unilever Chile, I have had to closely follow the process of the formation of the first Integrated Management System (SIG) for Containers and Packaging. It has grouped competing companies that had been related only through joint participation in guilds. This came with its own set of complexities.

Establishing this system as an autonomous body has brought challenges in the areas of free competition. The normative contemplates the conformation of collective management systems among regulated producers, who may be competitors. The fact that these competitors can come together in favour of a common objective generates essential benefits for the market, such as reducing costs. At the same time, it can also cause risks in the independence of the decision-making process. Additionally, the OECD has identified the exchange of sensitive information among the member of the collective management system as a risk to free competition.

As a priority product, the Containers and Packaging group was defined by its massiveness, transversal presence and high volume in the entire population. This implies a tremendous opportunity in education and communication that has not yet been addressed systemically and a responsibility neither companies nor authorities have yet been able to assume.

This type of legislation, as well as the requirement of the Commission for the Financial Market (CMF) in Chile for the companies it regulates to report their policies, practices and goals adopted in terms of ESG, are a tremendous opportunity for the private sector to account for the installation of sustainability as part of its culture, facing both its employees and its consumers. The biggest challenge is for organisations to integrate it as part of their strategies and ways of working.

Along the same lines, implementing the REP law in Chile — and the world — is a clear example that responsibility for sustainability must cut across all societal actors. To achieve not only the proposed goals but also the impact that our planet needs, the commitment of public and private organisations, regulated or unregulated companies, authorities, and the general population must be authentic.