Costa Rica

Their efforts aim to prevent waste and discourage people from littering. Mora said the idea is to get people to know the serious impact of waste disposal. The problem is not the material but the bad disposition of the waste.

They also have outdated legislation. The majority of the waste is dumped into open spaces, sanitary landfills and only a small percentage of the waste is recycled. Approximately 90% of the waste are collected but the rural areas are left of the radar which is a big black spot for the country when its comes to waste disposal.

Lack of government funding. The fund mostly goes on Landfill disposal fees and only a minor amount is left back for MSWM procedures.

The challenge to recycling in Costa Rica can ultimately be attributed to the pure vast amount of land and terrain that any recycled material must travel to be collected and processed. Collection trucks for recyclable materials must travel far and wide, making their availability to citizens who do look to recycle their reusable goods rather sparse.

A huge and inspiring decision regarding plastic waste policies recently came from Costa Rica – not only will they be the world’s first country to completely eliminate single-use plastics, but plans are in place to do it as soon as possible

Costa Rica has implemented 3 new approaches towards the recycling:

In Eco-labeling, an authoritative certification committee provides an eco-label tag to the companies which has fulfilled a set of environmental guidelines which is tagged onto the final produce of the company.

In Deposit-refund, the ruling administration puts a charge on a recyclable item when it is obtained, which the customer would then be able to recover by reusing the item.

In PAYT, the government sets upon a charge for every disposed solid waste bag and in return accumulate the recyclable wastes for free. By this strategy adopted by the government it encourages the population to minimize the waste dumped and on the other hand it would pave way for an alternative source of revenue for the government which could be utilized in other ways for the betterment of the people.