Our senior associate of the Public Law and Regulated Markets Group, Gonzalo Bravo, talked to LexLatin about the changes that the inclusion of textiles in the REP Law brings for companies.
The Ministry of Environment seeks to curb the environmental impact of the textile industry and avoid the exponential increase of post-consumer waste.
Why do textiles fall under the REP Law?
The textile industry accounts for 7% of Chile’s urban waste. The average consumption of clothing is 32 kilos per capita per year. And even more shocking: it generates about 573 thousand tons of textile waste per year. In this context, the Ministry of the Environment has just declared textiles as the seventh priority product under the Extended Producer Responsibility Law, popularly known as REP Law (20.920).
But Chile’s problem lies not only in the production and consumption of textiles: the Atacama Desert has become the largest open-air garbage dump in the world. It is estimated that, on average, the country receives more than 59,000 tons of used clothing per year, mostly from the United States, Europe and Asia.
The objective of the measure, made official on June 24, 2025, is to respond to the growing environmental impact of the textile industry and the exponential increase in post-consumer waste: producers will have to report the amount of products they have put on sale in the country and manage, accordingly, the waste generated by their activity – the collection and recovery targets will be defined soon, by decree.
What changes for producers and consumers?
The incorporation of textiles into the REP Law not only imposes new obligations on manufacturers, importers and marketers, but also opens a new front of rights and responsibilities for consumers.
“With the inclusion of textile products as priority products there will be a paradigm shift in the industry. Companies will now have to include the financing and organization of their waste management within their costs. In addition, and as we will see in the future supreme decree, the Ministry of the Environment will establish collection and valorization goals, and the establishment of specific additional obligations for textile products,” analyzes Gonzalo Bravo, senior associate in Albagli Zaliasnik’s Public Law and Regulated Markets group.
As the implementation of the REP Law already has a track record in other industries, the expert considers that the maturation time of the standard is a competitive advantage for textile producers.
“Both the authority and the companies have learned that the implementation of the REP Law is complex, that industries must adapt, and that the authority is the first to inform and educate the different actors on how to comply with their obligations. However, there is an important advantage for companies that qualify as producers of textile priority products: they can see what the main obstacles have been in the regulatory implementation of previous priority products,” says Bravo.
Although the REP Law and its implementing regulations – supreme decrees, quality norms, standards and exempt resolutions, among others – do not directly grant new rights to consumers, the incorporation of textiles as priority products will have consequences for consumption and the retail market.
“Among the main consequences, I identify three very clear externalities: two positive and one negative. The bad one is that it would not be unusual to see a transfer of costs from the companies to the textile products resulting from the new obligation to finance waste management, i.e., a rise in the price of the products, making them more difficult to access. However, this negative externality is mitigated by the relevance of positive externalities: better quality clothing, where eco-design becomes relevant and clothing repair becomes a real alternative, and transparency in production processes,” predicts Gonzalo Bravo.
For AZ’s expert in regulated markets, as the producing companies will have to register in the PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register), the authority, the market and consumers will have access to valuable information, such as volumes, types of products and amount of waste.
“The market will be able to use this data to become more competitive. As an example, I can think of a new formal market for repaired or reconditioned clothing, where the repair ensures compliance with minimum standards that allow consumers to have peace of mind in accessing a high quality product and, by the way, whose origin is traceable,” he says.
What will happen with defective or faulty garments?
Chilean regulations establish that consumers have the right to a triple option (exchange, repair or refund of the amount paid) in the event of receiving a defective or faulty product.
“For the REP Law, the focus is the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle and its objective is waste management, where the main obligor is the producer. In contrast, the Consumer Law focuses on the consumption relationship prior to the product becoming waste. However, nothing prevents companies from encouraging or promoting one option over the other. In my opinion, it would be a very good policy for companies to open easily accessible garment repair shops, or to include advantages, discounts or promotions in the event that the person prefers to repair his or her garment rather than exchange it or get his or her money back,” he says.
Bravo considers that the inclusion of textiles as a priority product will mean a change in the way of consuming and selling these products, since not repairing and not revaluing will have a high cost for companies.
At the same time, the specialist predicts that new actors will emerge in the textile industry: on the one hand, companies that will help solve the problem of waste management; on the other hand, companies aimed at ensuring the quality and design of garments to meet the goals set by the authority.
