In Costa Rica, some 323 thousand tons of plastic materials are consumed annually, of which more than 50% are single-use products that end up being washed away by rivers and marine currents offshore.
Faced with this problem, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the United Nations Development Program in Costa Rica (UNDP), the Ministry of Health, the MarViva Foundation, among others, have coordinated efforts to ensure that 65 public and private companies and 25 municipalities replace single-use plastics with renewable alternatives.
Solid waste is a threat to the development of societies, the lack of an adequate disposition of these and their integral management have endangered our aquatic resources. An example of this are single-use plastics, the kind that is used for a short time, but lasts for hundreds of years to degrade, such as shopping bags, straws, coffee removers, and plastic containers,”
commented Haydée Rodríguez, Deputy Minister of Water and Seas.
The National Strategy for the replacement of single-use plastics, aims to call consumers and the economic sector to use the alternatives made with compostable, renewable sources, in order to ensure a healthy environment, and contribute to the mitigation of the effects of climate change through the generation of organic materials.
The individual actions of each woman and man, boy and girl, will make the goal of a cleaner country and a healthy environment a reality. Sustainable development requires a comprehensive vision where environmental, social, and economic development go hand in hand,”
said the deputy ministry.
If you want to join the commitment of turning Costa Rica into a #ZonaLibredePlasticos, you can access the information of the strategy, as well as a list of alternatives for renewable products through zonalibredeplastico.org