Across Latin America, governments are tightening packaging rules as they attempt to build circular systems despite major gaps in collection and recycling infrastructure. The region is not a global leader in packaging recycling. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, about 230 million tonnes of municipal solid waste are generated each year, but only around 4% is recovered, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
That gap is part of what makes the region important to the packaging industry. Countries including Brazil, Chile and Colombia are strengthening extended producer responsibility (EPR), setting collection and recovery requirements and introducing measures covering recycled content and traceability. At the same time, policymakers are confronting a feature that distinguishes many Latin American recycling systems from those in more developed markets: waste pickers already recover a substantial share of recyclable materials.
The result is a series of real-world experiments in how packaging can move from a linear model of make, use and discard towards systems in which materials are collected, processed and returned to production. For packaging manufacturers, converters, recyclers and consumer goods companies, the significance extends beyond the growth potential of the region itself. Latin America is becoming a place to watch how regulation, packaging design, recycling infrastructure and existing collection networks interact when circular systems have to be built rather than simply expanded.
Extended producer responsibility is becoming an important driver of packaging circularity in Latin America. EPR places responsibility for managing post-consumer waste on producers, although the precise financial and operational obligations vary between countries. The direction is increasingly towards measurable requirements covering collection, recovery and, in some cases, recycled content.
Chile provides one of the region's clearest examples. Its Ley REP makes producers responsible for organising and financing the management of waste from designated priority products. Packaging and containers are among those categories, with producers required to meet collection and recovery targets through management systems.
The Chilean framework also gives waste pickers, known as recicladores de base, a role in packaging collection and recycling. This is significant because the effectiveness of an EPR system ultimately depends on whether discarded packaging can be collected and processed in the real world. Brazil has taken a different regulatory route.
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