Initiatives to reduce and manage packaging wastes appear to be gaining traction, particularly in Argentina, which enacted a new pesticide packaging take-back law and saw two new bills to establish general packaging take-back and recycling systems, and in Mexico, where legislators introduced bills to curtail the use of plastic shopping bags and require management of expanded polystyrene wastes.
Attention to sustainable products is also growing in the region, with ecolabeling bills in Argentina and Brazil, and a bill in Chile to stimulate imports of several types of green technology.
The issue of water as a basic human right is on the agenda in both Chile, where a committee approved a bill to prioritize human consumption over other uses of water, and Peru, with two recently introduced bills proposing to add access to water to its constitutionally guaranteed human rights.