On 12 May 2026, SIPLA held a workshop entitled “Circular economy, intellectual property and sustainability in Latin America” at the Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception (UCSC) in Concepción, Chile, as part of the Smart IP Initiative for Latin America (SIPLA). The event took place in the Auditorium of the San José Obrero Building, San Andrés Campus, and brought together experts from Chile, Argentina and Colombia, as well as members of the SIPLA Initiative.

The starting point of the meeting was that the circular economy cannot be reduced to an environmental policy or a corporate social responsibility strategy. On the contrary, it represents a paradigm shift away from the linear model of extraction, production, consumption and disposal. From this perspective, circularity requires maintaining the value of products, components and materials for as long as possible, through strategies of durability, repair, reuse, reconditioning, remanufacturing and high-quality recycling. This transformation shifts the legal focus from the sale of new goods towards genuine governance of the product life cycle.

During the workshop, the ambivalent role of intellectual property in this process was discussed. On the one hand, intellectual property rights can incentivise innovation in materials, clean technologies, traceability, diagnostics and circular solutions. On the other hand, they can also act as barriers when combined with contracts, technological protection measures, trade secrets or data control that restrict repair, access to spare parts, interoperability and secondary markets. This tension is particularly relevant for Latin America, where dependence on externally controlled technologies, designs and inputs can reproduce asymmetries between countries that develop technical systems and those that adopt them.

The workshop also addressed the regulatory leeway available within existing international commitments, including the TRIPS Agreement. The potential interplay between the exhaustion of rights, exceptions and limitations, limited-scope licences, competition law and technical regulation was discussed. However, it was also emphasised that these instruments require precise sectoral assessments, institutional capacity and a broader understanding of the circular economy, one that does not reduce it to waste management or final recycling.

The discussions were organised around specific sectors. With regard to extended producer responsibility, the regulatory, economic and technological incentives needed to promote eco-design, reuse and reduction at source were analysed, as well as the risks that EPR might act as a barrier to entry that favours dominant players. In the area of batteries and electric mobility, the debate focused on the data required to enable second-life applications and high-quality recycling, including health status, composition, history, safety, disassembly, traceability and digital passports.

The workshop also addressed the challenges facing the textile and fashion industry, particularly in relation to secondary markets, reconditioning and upcycling. Sustainability, durability, reparability and end-of-life standards applied by international brands were discussed, as well as the need for verifiable and traceable labelling to facilitate textile separation, reuse and recovery. Furthermore, the take-back and second-life programmes of major brands were analysed, along with the potential tension between effective circularity, environmental marketing and control of the secondary market.

In the case of plastic packaging from the phytosanitary and agrochemical industries, end-of-life management obligations were examined, along with the distribution of responsibilities among manufacturers, importers, distributors and agricultural users, and the role of cooperatives and reverse logistics systems. Finally, regarding waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), the discussion focused on why WEEE schemes tend to be primarily geared towards material recycling rather than repair or second life, as well as the need for repairability standards and circular hierarchies that distinguish between repairing, refurbishing, reusing parts or recycling materials.

The workshop enabled progress on a research agenda aimed at understanding how the circular economy can be implemented in Latin America without reproducing technological dependencies or being limited to basic recycling schemes. In this regard, the discussions highlighted the need for regulatory frameworks capable of enabling repair, reuse, traceability, interoperability and access to technical information, whilst preserving adequate incentives for innovation and avoiding unjustified restrictions in secondary markets.

Workshop participants

- Reto Hilty, Germany (SIPLA - MPI)

- Christian Schmitz, Chile (UCSC)

- Juan Correa, Argentina (SIPLA - MPI)

- Juliana Krueger Pela, Brazil (SIPLA - USP)

- Nicolás Hermida, Argentina (SIPLA - MPI)

- Roxana Blasetti, Argentina (SIPLA - MPI)

- María Alejandra Echavarría Arcila, Colombia (SIPLA - MPI)

- Juan Camilo Contreras Jaramillo, Colombia (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana)

- Guillermo Vidaurreta, Argentina (CEIDIE - UBA)

- Martín Aylwin Fernández, Chile (Specialist in regulatory frameworks for the Circular Economy and Extended Producer Responsibility. Partner at Aylwin Matta)

- Alejandra Bravo Olivares, Chile (Specialist in renewable energy and innovation, Director of Development at “LIBR3” – Lithium Battery Reuse, Recycle and Reduce – CircularTec)

- Daniela Ehijo Paredes, Chile (CEO of ECOCITEX – Circular Textile Economy)

- Francisco Fernández Rodríguez, (CEO of CHILERECICLA – Environmental Services)

- Nieves Pascuzzi, Argentina (Economist specialising in sustainable production systems)