German plastics industry waste management consultant and recycling scheme operator RIGK (Wiesbaden; www.rigk.de) has announced that a take-back and reclaim system for industrial packaging in Chile it consulted on was launched in October.

The ProREP management system for non-household packaging was initiated by several Chilean companies as a purely industrial return network for packaging. More than 450 manufacturers and distributors of plastics packaging are said to have joined ProREP to meet a decree for containers and packaging that came into effect in September for extended producer responsibility.

The rules build upon a local law on waste management, extended producer responsibility and the promotion of recycling, that requires manufacturers and distributors to demonstrate lawful and sustainable collection and reclamation of used packaging. The law requires companies to meet recycling quotas, RIGK said.

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Further steps in the international networking of ProREP with other recycling systems are underway, RIGK noted, with ProREP representatives attending December’s international meeting of the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organisations (EPRO, Brussels; www.epro-plasticsrecycling.org). Plans are in place for ProREP to become a full member of EPRO by 2024, RIGK added.

Coinciding with the official launch of ProREP, RIGK management participated in the organisation of a related initiative, Recycling in Chile: Challenges and Opportunities for Implementation, Integrating European Practices in Industry. The launch of the ProREP system marks the conclusion of RIGK’s consultancy project.