For more than two decades there has been an on-going debate in Argentina about the draft bills presented to congress for the management of packaging waste and the notion of extended producer responsibility. This article analyses the points of agreement and controversies among the stakeholders with respect to their approach to the debate. The analysis essentially covers the discussions around three key is- sues related to a proposed packaging waste management system: the obliged sub- jects liable to make contributions, the state or private nature of the entity responsible for managing such system, and the role of the waste pickers and their organizations. A number of secondary sources were consulted (legislative files, dossiers, public records and bibliography), and several interviews were conducted with a number of key actors (specialists in this field, legislative advisers, waste picker’s referents, law- makers, public servants and technical experts) for the writing of this paper.