The Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) and 13 business chambers signed a joint agreement to promote the enactment of a National Comprehensive Packaging Management Law, aiming to establish common rules for the treatment of post-consumer packaging and move towards a circular economy model.
The commitment brings together sectors producing and using packaging: food, chemical, metallurgical, plastic, paper, beverage, and mass consumption industries. The UIA emphasized that the regulation must protect the environment without affecting productivity or competitiveness.
A Two-Decade Debate
The discussion for a national packaging law began in 2004 and went through multiple stages of technical analysis and consensus building.
In 2022, the Packaging Commission of the UIA’s Environment and Sustainable Development Department deepened work on the central criteria that the future law should consider.
Principles of the Proposal
The signed document proposes that the law function as a minimum standards regulation, with homogeneous criteria for the entire country, avoiding fragmented regulations by jurisdiction. Key points include:
- Limiting to post-consumer packaging waste similar to household waste.
- Reducing final disposal and promoting recovery as a productive input.
- Incorporating principles of gradualness, progressiveness, and reasonableness.
- Defining collection and recovery targets with technical criteria, considering population density, geography, per capita consumption, and available infrastructure.
Extended Producer Responsibility
The business consensus includes the figure of Extended Producer Responsibility, under which those who place packaging on the market must participate in the subsequent management of that waste. The scheme would rely on a public-private partnership:
- The private sector would manage and administer the systems.
- The State would oversee their operation.
Integrated Management Systems
The proposal allows for different models of Integrated Management Systems (SIG): individual, private, public-private, joint, or proprietary deposit, return, and refund systems.
Funding would come from a contribution for each packaged product placed for the first time on the national market, considering the different types of packaging and materials to avoid distortions affecting competitiveness.
The UIA highlighted the need to include urban recyclers in the recycling chain, promoting their training, infrastructure improvements, and formal employment, with the participation of municipalities and local actors.
Incentives and Benefits
The document proposes incentives for companies that:
- Incorporate recycled material in their packaging.
- Use recyclable materials.
- Invest in technology and infrastructure to improve recovery capacity.
Suggested tools include tax benefits and tax credit certificates for those who advance compliance with targets or invest in necessary equipment and works. Additionally, the importance of having common, transparent, and accessible statistics and indicators is emphasized to measure the efficiency of the policies.
Participating Chambers
The commitment was supported by entities such as ADIMRA, ALPHA, AFCPapel, AFCP Cemento, Cámara Argentina del Acero, CADIBSA, CAFCCO, CAIAMA, CAPA, CAIP, Cámara Argentina del Libro, CIQyP, and COPAL, representing different links in the production chain.
The initiative of the UIA and the business chambers seeks to send an institutional signal in the face of the legislative debate. In Congress, projects promoted by the Executive Branch coexist with other proposals, so the industrial sector decided to formalize a common position based on technical, productive, and environmental consensus.
The future packaging law could become a pillar of the circular economy in Argentina, integrating companies, municipalities, and urban recyclers into a national sustainable management system.
