The Minister of Health, Mary Munive, warned that Costa Rica is on the verge of an unprecedented garbage crisis due to a serious problem with landfills.
“We have a solid waste management crisis, and if we don’t do something now, we are going to be awash in garbage, probably by the end of the year,” she said.
The hierarch explained that there are eight landfills that are in the process of being closed, and that the Administrative and Civil Court of the Treasury has already ruled in favor of closing the Los Pinos landfill in Cartago, which, she said, was at its maximum capacity.
Munive stated that there are serious waste management problems in the country and called on the municipalities to execute recycling plans. The minister emphasized that municipalities are responsible for “the efficient collection of all waste, to make their communities valorize this waste and to implement the necessary technologies so that this can be done.”
San José alone produces 47% of the country’s waste. However, many other cantons have serious deficiencies in terms of collection, logistics, classification, and comprehensive waste management plans. As highlighted by the Minister, fewer than 10% of the population recycles.
“There is no culture of recycling. We’re not aware of how critical the issue is. If you dispose of 90% of garbage, where do you take it?” she said.
Last April, the government launched a waste management policy called La Ruta de Salud Ambiental (Environmental Health Route), which seeks to control the increase in waste generation with regulations and management protocols.
Among the key points of the document are to be able to reach 25% recycling of total waste by 2033 and that at least 34% of the national territory has garbage collection.
“We have reached a critical point where there has been no way to somehow articulate; we hope that with this call and with this change of government, there will be working tables. We must respond to this looming public health crisis,” she concluded.
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Ileana Fernandez
