This year the agenda of the Eurochile´s Circular Economy working group is packed with various activities that seek to support its transition towards a more sustainable productivity model through access to new knowledge, collaboration with European institutions, connection services to Europe and matchmaking events.

With this important task ahead, the team led by Enrique Sánchez Slater, director of Sustainability and Circular Economy at Eurochile, is preparing, and whose first work meeting of the year is scheduled for March.

“On the occasion a European Expert will join us who will talk about Circular Economy and,  we will discuss the possibility of proposing a CORFO project together as a group”, says Sánchez.

In this context, the director of the area highlights the existing interest of SMEs to move forward in a concrete way. “We want to materialise it this year, but as a group, through a Corfo associative instrument. In the meeting held last December, we found at least four of them interested”, he recalls.

The Circular Economy (CE) working group started in 2019 and after the pandemic began a process of updating its objectives, aiming at three main guidelines: implementing circular economy strategies and their business models, promoting a systemic transformation in Chile; linking the group with relevant experts from Chilean public and private institutions and their position in the implementation of the roadmap and, collaborating and creating Chilean-European synergies between companies and important entities in circular economy.

“Regardless of the services we offer to this circular economy group, we want to open it up and hopefully take it to regions. We also want to link it with our Chilean- European Business Center and this topic will be part of the discussion in the first sessions ”, he comments.

Why must companies be part of the group?

Eurochile’s director of Sustainability and Circular Economy says that private companies don´t always have access to knowledge of circular economy regulations, such as the EPR Law, and therefor it is important for companies to participate in networks such as the circular economy working group, he stresses.

“One of the added values ​​of being a member is having access to information on public policies on recycling. The big challenge for companies is the implementation of the EPR Law and there will surely be a lot of talk about that, and how we can accompany them through the transfer of information and public policies, and make public institutions visible in this group, so that they can anticipate and implement the EPR Law and other policies associated with recycling, such as the Roadmap for a Circular Chile by 2040”, he explains.

Among the core services are workshops on eco-design strategic guidelines and internationalisation. In terms of networking services to Europe and matchmaking events, a national is planned, and there is also the possibility of participating, on demand, in a European, in a hybrid format.

These activities will be linked with European experts from the Slovenian organisation, Circular Change thanks to a collaboration agreement that the Foundation and the entity signed in 2022, he points out.

The calendar with activities activities of this 2023 is already structured and includes two Open Days, one scheduled for the first half of the year and the second for the month of August. The aim of these two activities is to raise awareness of the group´s work and encourage new members. The workshops are planned to be held monthly and the topics have already been defined. In order to show the progress of the group and its actions during 2023, a seminar will be held in December.

“We want to invite all Chilean SMEs – from north to south – that want to join Eurochile’s Circular Economy working group, so that together we can promote the development of networks and collaborations between the actors in this transition”, concludes Sánchez.