If your company imports or produces batteries — for phones, laptops, power tools, electric vehicles or storage systems — Chile's Extended Producer Responsibility law (Law No. 20,920) will reach you. The question is not whether it applies to you, but when, and how much arriving late will cost.
What does the EPR law require?
The principle is simple: whoever places a priority product on the Chilean market is responsible for organizing (and financing) its collection and valorization once it becomes waste. For batteries, the targets start low and grow every year for a decade.
The targets, in two lines
- Small batteries (<5 kg) — electronics and micromobility: from 3% in year one to 45% by year ten.
- Large batteries (≥5 kg) — electromobility and BESS: no target for the first two years, then 15% to 50%.
Year one is estimated to be 2028. That may sound distant, but building a management system, contracts with authorized managers and auditable traceability takes time. Those who wait for the final decree will compete for valorization capacity that barely exists today: Chile has roughly 2.5% of the recycling capacity it will need.
What does non-compliance risk?
The law contemplates fines per unmanaged tonne, plus the reputational cost of declaring non-compliance year after year. And there is a less obvious cost: lithium batteries are hazardous waste, and storing them badly is a real fire risk.
How Ecobaterías helps
We receive end-of-life batteries as hazardous waste, with waybills, per-batch weighing and valorization certificates that back your declaration. And unlike waste export, valorization happens in Chile: your batteries end up as the cobalt sulfate that large-scale mining already uses.