Chilean Senate passes bill widening plastic bag ban and setting rules for reusable bags

A bill amending Chile's 2018 plastic bag law passed the Senate on 6 October 2026 with 28 votes in favour and two against, and now sits with the Chamber of Deputies' environment committee. It would extend the existing ban on commercial plastic bags to bread, groceries, fruit and vegetables, and set composition, traceability and labelling requirements for reusable bags made of recycled plastic, with sanctions including loss of trading licence for repeat offenders.

Why this mattersA wider ban plus recycled-content rules for reusable bags would reshape demand for paper, textile and recycled-plastic bag substitutes in Chile's retail sector.

• The bill (boletin 17.088-12) passed the Senate 6 October 2026, 28 votes for, two against.
• It was sent to the Chamber of Deputies' Environment and Natural Resources Committee on 7 October 2026.
• It would extend the plastic bag ban to bags for bread, groceries, fruit and vegetables, with paper, textile or recycled-material alternatives proposed.
• Reusable bags made of plastic collected and recycled in Chile would need to be wholly of that material under a technical standard, with batch traceability and disposal labelling.
• Repeat offending retailers could have their trading licence cancelled.
• Adela Rogers, sustainability manager at Unibag, warned the recycled-plastic reusable category could weaken the 2018 law's waste reduction; Mark Minneboo, executive director of Fundacion Conexion Natural, raised similar concerns.

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