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Chile: the general eco-label that was terminated
Chile does not require a general on-pack recycling instruction. The 2022–2025 attempt to create one under Ley 20.920 Article 4(b) was terminated on 4 July 2025. What remains are product-specific duties on certified single-use plastics and disposable bottles, plus a voluntary recyclability seal. Treating Chile as a market that is about to require a recycling label on all household packs is no longer accurate.
The question this report answers
For three years Chile looked, from outside, like a jurisdiction on the point of requiring an environmental label on household packaging. Ley 20.920 Article 4(b) empowers the Ministry of the Environment to establish, by supreme decree, certification, rotulación and labelling of one or more products. Resolución Exenta 42 of 2022 opened that procedure for household packaging of foods, personal-care products and household cleaning products. Resolución Exenta 4067, promulgated 23 June 2025 and published in the Diario Oficial on 4 July 2025, terminated it. The operative clause puts an end to the decree-making procedure. The recitals state that a recyclability seal can be run by a Gransic under DS 12/2020 without a dedicated labelling decree, that Article 4(b) is not the suitable instrument for a components-and-materiality label, and that a future review of DS 12/2020 is the better vehicle.
What Chile has instead is a narrower on-pack story under Ley 21.368 and its regulation, Decreto Supremo 30 of 10 October 2024, published on 7 January 2026: prescribed phrases on certified plastic, and a lote number plus QR code on disposable plastic bottles whose recycled content is certified. Beside those duties sits #ElijoReciclar, a voluntary APL seal. Extended producer responsibility under DS 12/2020 remains an off-pack system. The labelling landscape is therefore the opposite of the story that was told between 2022 and 2025. There is no general household eco-label. There are category-specific rótulos, a voluntary seal, and a terminated procedure that should not be listed as forthcoming.
Legal status at a glance
| Requirement | Status | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| General household eco-label | terminated 4 Jul 2025 | Resolución Exenta 4067 ended the Article 4(b) decree-making procedure. It is not upcoming mandatory marking. |
| #ElijoReciclar | voluntary | A certification seal. Among other conditions, at least 80 per cent of pack weight must be technically recyclable, separable, and in demand from a valoriser. It is not a statutory market-entry condition. |
| Certified-plastic rótulo | adopted; delayed trigger | DS 30 Article 7: “Plástico certificado Ley N° 21.368”, the certificate number, and “Compostable” or “Compostable industrialmente”. Enforceable 18 months after MMA notice that the first technical entity is authorised. |
| Disposable-bottle lote + QR | adopted | DS 30 Article 13. Recycled content is calculated on the bottle body only. Importers of filled bottles and MIPYME producers are exempt from Title III. |
| In-store returnable offer | mandatory; not on-pack | Ley 21.368 Article 8. Gondola information, not a bottle recycling logo. |
The abandoned general measure
The 2022 procedure would have labelled household packaging of foods, personal-care and cleaning products, drawing on the APL eco-etiquetado. It is over. A recyclability seal of the #ElijoReciclar type can be operated by a Gransic without that decree; Resolución 4067 says so on its face. SERNAC’s account of #ElijoReciclar, published 28 April 2025, treats the seal as a voluntary certification. That is the correct classification. It is not a statutory substitute for the terminated decree, and it is not a market-entry condition for ordinary household packs.
Ley 21.368 and Decreto 30
Article 2(k) of the law defines certified plastic as plastic composed wholly or partly of renewable-resource materials, designed to be composted at household or industrial level, with regulation to set temperature, a biodegradation time of not more than one year, and a minimum renewable-content percentage of not less than 20 per cent. DS 30 Article 3 sets at least 20 per cent renewable mass; at least 90 per cent biodegradation in 365 days at 30 °C or below for household compostable; and at least 90 per cent in 180 days at 40–70 °C for industrial. Article 7 requires the rótulo to be visible, legible and indelible and not to prevent compostability. Graphic expression, dimensions and exceptions are to be fixed by MMA resolution. That millimetre artwork had not been locked as a published resolution at verification.
The Article 7 legend, when it becomes enforceable, is three prescribed elements: the words “Plástico certificado Ley N° 21.368”; the certificate number; and either “Compostable” or “Compostable industrialmente”. Informal biodegradability copy on uncertified single-use plastic is not that rótulo. The rótulo becomes enforceable 18 months after MMA publishes notice that the Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente has authorised the first technical entity. Certifications themselves become enforceable six months after that same notice. Those clocks had not, as of 21 August 2026, been started in a way that this report treats as current artwork.
Disposable bottles sold in Chile must contain plastic collected and recycled in Chile in the proportions the regulation sets. DS 30 Article 10: 15 per cent for 2025–2029, then 25, 50, 60 and 70 per cent by decade, calculated on the bottle body, excluding caps and labels, on bottles sealed after filling from 1 January of the relevant year. Manufacturers of bottles and of preforms are the composition obligors. Article 13 requires the lote number and a QR code linking to the public certificate platform. Article 9 of the decree, mirroring Article 9 of the law, excludes MIPYME beverage producers and imported filled bottles from Title III. Sale of an uncertified disposable bottle to a consumer is sanctioned per bottle on the comercializador (1–5 UTM). The QR is a vehicle for those bottles. It is not a general Chilean recycling label.
Entry into force has to be cited with both instruments. Decree Article 20 brings the regulation into force on Diario Oficial publication, 7 January 2026. Ley 21.368 Article 2º transitorio provides that the regulation is in force six months after publication, which MMA’s timeline treats as 7 July 2026 for certification mechanics. In-store, Article 8 of the law requires a returnable offer and gondola information. That is a point-of-sale duty. It is not an on-pack recycling logo.
What this leaves on the pack
A Chilean household food, personal-care or cleaning pack is not, as of this verification, required to carry a general environmental label. It may carry #ElijoReciclar if it is certified. Certified single-use plastic, once the Article 7 trigger runs, will carry a prescribed compostability rótulo rather than a recycling instruction. Disposable bottles manufactured in Chile carry lote and QR for recycled-content certification; imported filled bottles and MIPYME producers do not fall under Title III. EPR under DS 12/2020 continues as a system of collective and individual management, not as a pictogram law. A future review of DS 12/2020 is the vehicle the termination recitals prefer. It is not, today, a labelling decree.
Primary sources and verification
Chile. Ley N° 21.368 (BCN, version 13 February 2026). BCN
Chile. Decreto Supremo N° 30 (BCN, version 7 January 2026). BCN
MMA. Reglamento PDF. MMA PDF
Chile. Resolución Exenta N° 4067 (termination, DO 4 July 2025). BCN
Chile. Ley N° 20.920, Article 4. BCN
SERNAC. #ElijoReciclar (28 April 2025). SERNAC
MMA. Plásticos / Law 21.368 timeline. economiacircular.mma.gob.cl
Spanish-language official texts control. Last verified: 21 August 2026.