According to data provided by the Ministry of Health, the country has made progress in the ways of disposing of solid waste. However, it has done so slowly in the issue of recycling. From 2014 to 2016 it went from 1.26% to 6.06% in this regard.
Eugenio Adrovetto, Director of the Department of Protection of the Human Environment of the Ministry of Health, stated that the vast majority of solid waste goes to landfills, which means that a lot of raw material is lost and buried.
Taking it to landfill is not bad because it obeys the law, which tells us what is to be done; it is a technical standard that is allowed. But we are burying the waste, the raw material. That is the problem. What are we are burying? Cardboard, paper, tin, plastic,”
stressed Androvetto.
More than 12 thousand tons of the 961.5 thousand tons collected from 2014 to 2015 were recovered for valorization and the remaining 949.4 thousand tons were sent to sanitary landfills and municipal landfills, as revealed by the latest report on the management of municipalities, to ensure the efficient and effective provision of ordinary waste collection service.
In 2014, of the 4000 tons of solid waste generated daily in the country; 75% was recycled, exported or arrived at landfills, and 25% of the remaining tons were deposited in landfills, streets, rivers, vacant lots, and others. In the last study, (2016) waste recycled, exported and destined to landfills went to 87%. However, of this percentage, only 6.06% was recycled. That success, according to the Ministry of Health, is associated with the closure of certain landfills.
However,
we have to take that 6.06% to 15% by 2021,”
according to Adrovetto.
The latest study by the Ministry of Finance, MINAE, the Central Bank and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, showed that although important resources were allocated for environmental protection, the Government continues to invest little in the area of solid waste treatment and the issue of recycling.
In 2015, spending on this issue was 55,932 million colones, a figure that represents 0.9% of GDP and 11,575 colones per capita. However, the two environmental activities that account for most of this expenditure are the management of wastewater, with 39%, and the protection of biodiversity and landscapes, with 37%.