Chile’s EPR law and batteries: what applies today and what is coming

Chile’s Extended Producer Responsibility law (Ley REP, Law No. 20,920) is in force and makes producers finance the collection and recovery of their products, but batteries still have no targets: they will be set by a decree that is still being drafted and that the Ministry of the Environment must propose before 2027-01-29. Portable batteries and solar modules already have their own targets in Supreme Decree (DS) 22/2025.

Updated October 9, 2026 · Reviewed by the EcoBaterías technical team.

• 1,100 tof lithium-ion battery waste estimated for 2026 in Chile
• 44,400 tof lead-acid battery waste estimated for 2026
• ≈0%of lithium-ion batteries are recycled in Chile today
• 2027-01-29deadline for the Ministry of the Environment to propose the battery decree

Source: regulatory impact assessment of the draft battery decree, Ministry of the Environment (Res. Ex. 821/2026) (opens in a new tab) · 2026-09-18

Timeline: how the battery decree got here

Law No. 20,920 set six priority products in 2016 and left the actual targets to later decrees, one per product. The battery decree has been in the making for years: the file was opened, an extended operating committee brought industry and academia to the table, and several deadline extensions followed before a consultable text existed.

Sources: Ministry of the Environment, draft supreme decree for batteries (opens in a new tab) · Ministry of the Environment, deadline extension (Res. Ex. 4,225/2026) (opens in a new tab) · 2026-09-26

The practical consequence is simple: any battery target you read today, including the ones on this page, comes from a draft and may change. The valid reference will be the published decree.

What counts as a battery and what stays a portable cell

The draft narrows its scope in Art. 2 No. 1: batteries are units of 5 kg or more, plus every lead-acid battery regardless of weight. Units under 5 kg that are not lead-acid are treated as portable batteries, which means they fall under DS 22/2025.

The weight cut is not arbitrary: it separates the household flow, collected at drop-off points and retailers, from the industrial flow — electric vehicle and bus packs, large tools, machinery, storage systems — which moves on dispatch notes, per-batch weighing and authorized transport. Two logistics, two decrees.

Swipe to see the full table

Who is covered and who is exempt

The main obligation falls on the producer: whoever manufactures in Chile or first imports the product into the national market. If a solar plant, a bus fleet or a mining site imports its own equipment directly, that company is the producer of those units even if it never sells them. This is the point that surprises most compliance teams.

The draft proposes two exemptions in Art. 5: micro-enterprises as defined in Law No. 20,416 and anyone placing less than 600 kg per year on the market. Being exempt from the targets does not exempt anyone from handling the hazardous waste properly once the battery leaves service.

Targets by category: two decrees, two calendars

The most common mistake in the sector is mixing the DS 22/2025 targets with the ones in the battery draft. They are independent calendars with different legal status.

Legal status of table A: DS 22/2025 was published in the Official Gazette on 2026-05-07 and its targets are enforceable 24 months after publication, that is, from May 2028.

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Source: DS 22/2025, Ministry of the Environment, Official Gazette (opens in a new tab) · 2026-09-18

Legal status of table B as of 2026-09-26: Law No. 20,920 is in force. The battery collection and recovery targets come from the draft approved by Res. Ex. 821/2026 (2026-02-16), submitted to public consultation between 2026-02-25 and 2026-04-09 with 451 comments and 33 international inquiries; the deadline was extended by Res. Ex. 4,225/2026 (2026-07-29) to 2027-01-29. The figures may change during the process; the valid reference will be the published decree.

Swipe to see the full table

Source: draft battery decree, Ministry of the Environment (Res. Ex. 821/2026) (opens in a new tab) · 2026-09-18

The 30% preparation-for-reuse share is the hinge of the whole decree for lithium-ion: it forces testing before shredding. A pack that arrives with one damaged module and the rest healthy should not go straight to recycling, and that is exactly the job of lithium battery testing, repair and pack refurbishment.

What already applies, without waiting for the decree

While the decree is being drafted, an end-of-life battery is not in a legal vacuum. Law No. 20,920 is already in force as a framework, and handling the waste itself is governed by the hazardous waste regulation, Supreme Decree (DS) 148/2003, which requires a management plan from anyone generating more than 12 t of hazardous waste per year (or more than 12 kg of acutely toxic waste) and requires delivery to an authorized final destination, with authorized transport and a declared movement.

In practice, four things are enforceable today for any company accumulating end-of-life batteries:

Swipe to see the full table

Source: Hazardous waste regulation, DS 148/2003 (Library of the National Congress of Chile) (opens in a new tab) · 2026-09-26

The Lampa hydrometallurgical plant was operated by EcoMinería (Ecoprojects), a founding partner of EcoBaterías, under a 2020 health permit from the Seremi de Salud (Chile’s regional health authority) of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, issued in its name. The new EcoBaterías plant is under review by the Seremi de Salud RM. Today EcoBaterías coordinates pickup with licensed hazardous-waste carriers and manages lithium battery recycling for companies with authorized receiving facilities, which issue the valorization certificate for every batch.

Three roles with concrete duties

Beyond the producer, the draft spreads duties across everyone who handles the battery during its life. These are the three roles that generate the most questions.

1. Retailers over 400 m² (Art. 26). They must take back, free of charge, spent batteries of the types they sell.
2. Vehicle workshops (Art. 29). Collective management systems must collect there the batteries removed from vehicles, and workshops sign up in a free register. This mostly affects lead-acid, and increasingly hybrid and electric packs.
3. Industrial consumers and storage owners above 1 MWh (Art. 40). They must report annually, before May 31, through the single window of Chile’s pollutant release and transfer register (RETC).

The draft also requires a minimum network of drop-off points based on the population of each municipality (Art. 28), so that territorial coverage does not depend only on where each management system finds it convenient to operate.

Management systems and the management plan

Law No. 20,920 allows two compliance routes: an individual management system, organized and financed by the producer, or a collective system grouping several producers. In both cases the system must file a management plan with the Ministry of the Environment, stating the territorial coverage committed, the managers under contract and how compliance will be evidenced.

For a producer the choice is rarely only about cost: a collective system spreads the expense, while an individual one keeps control over traceability and over what happens to the recovered material. What does not change on either route is that every collected kilogram must end at an authorized final destination and be evidenced on paper.

How to comply with EcoBaterías

The final destination is the link where a battery stops being a liability and becomes recovered material plus a document you can report with; EcoBaterías manages that stage with authorized receiving facilities. Today the service works like this:

1. Map the flow. We define which battery types leave your operation, in what annual volume and from which sites or branches.
2. A route per unit. Units that can be repaired or reused are tested before any decision; whatever has no possible use goes to recycling. That way the volume going through repair, refurbishment or second life could count towards the preparation-for-reuse share, if the final decree keeps that rule.
3. Collection and traceability. We coordinate pickup with licensed hazardous-waste carriers. Packaging and documents for each case are on collection and transport.
4. Recovery and certificate. We manage the valorization of the batch with authorized receiving facilities, in Chile or in OECD countries where applicable; the authorized receiving facility closes the SIDREP declaration. Each batch receives its valorization certificate, issued by the authorized receiving facility, which is what supports the annual report.

Recycling lithium-ion batteries, managed with authorized receiving facilities, costs 22 UF per tonne plus VAT (19%), a published price: see the recycling price. The UF is Chile’s inflation-indexed accounting unit. If you also have decommissioned photovoltaic modules, the route is DS 22/2025 for solar panels, with solar panel testing, reuse or panel recycling depending on the test result. For the market context behind these figures, see the Chilean battery and critical minerals market; short answers are in the FAQ and technical terms in the glossary.

Before you sign, check what to demand from an authorized lithium battery waste manager. If you only have a few units, the short route is where to recycle lithium batteries in Chile; every figure with its source is in the battery and solar panel statistics for Chile, and the version for producers and importers is the producer guide to Chile’s EPR law.

Frequently asked questions

Does Chile’s EPR law already require lithium batteries to be recycled?

Law No. 20,920 (Ley REP) is in force, but collection and recovery targets for batteries will be set by a decree that is still being drafted. What is enforceable today is handling the end-of-life battery as hazardous waste: hand it to a manager with a health permit, move the batch with authorized transport and keep documented traceability.

When do battery collection targets start to apply?

They do not apply yet. Chile’s Ministry of the Environment has until 2027-01-29 to propose the battery decree, under Res. Ex. 4,225/2026. Targets start counting from the entry into force of the published decree, not from the draft.

Are office batteries covered by the battery decree?

No. Portable batteries and electrical and electronic equipment have their own targets in Supreme Decree (DS) 22/2025, published on 2026-05-07 and enforceable 24 months later. The battery draft decree targets units of 5 kg or more and every lead-acid battery.

What does the draft propose for lead-acid batteries?

The draft proposes the highest targets in the decree: 50% collection in the first year and 90% in the ninth, and it keeps every lead-acid battery in scope regardless of weight. It is by far the largest flow in Chile.

Which document proves how my batteries were managed?

The valorization certificate for each batch, with its traceability: who collected it, how much it weighed, what was recovered and on which date. That is the document behind the producer’s annual report, and it is issued by the authorized receiving facility that valorizes the batch.

How long can I store end-of-life batteries?

Six months at most, extendable once for the same period with a technical report to the health authority (DS 148, art. 31). Meanwhile, the storage area must be roofed, with an impermeable floor and restricted access. Schedule the pickup before the deadline.

Sources

• Library of the National Congress of Chile, Law No. 20,920 on waste management and extended producer responsibility (opens in a new tab).
• Ministry of the Environment, DS 22/2025, published in the Official Gazette (opens in a new tab) on 2026-05-07.
• Ministry of the Environment, draft supreme decree for batteries and its regulatory impact assessment (Res. Ex. 821/2026) (opens in a new tab), with the extension granted by Res. Ex. 4,225/2026 (opens in a new tab).
• Library of the National Congress of Chile, Hazardous waste regulation, DS 148/2003 (opens in a new tab), arts. 25, 27, 31, 33, 34, 81 and 83.
• Publishable figures and their attribution: datos/estadisticas.json from EcoBaterías, as of 2026-09-18.