A year into its tenure, the government of Costa Rica has announced the formation of a joint committee to study a national plan for recycling and recovery of waste.
EDITORIAL:
In another grim example of the difficulties faced by rulers in Costa Rica to make executive decisions on public works, existing plans - which are currently on hold, and will probably disappear - for investment in the waste management and recycling sector, including generating power from them, due to the fact that the current government has decided to start from scratch with the formation of a committee to "develop strategies" on the topic. As if there were not already enough information on his issue, and as if the respective participants and those responsible had not expressed themselves sufficiently in this respect. It is the same case with the commission on energy introduced by this government.
In the past four decades great advances have not been made in the problems of water distribution, solid waste management, land use and transport.
Nine municipal administrations have presented action plans for solving the problems facing Guatemala City, but most have ended up as just that, plans.
"The current municipal authorities, in conjunction with the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), produced a study in 2008 called "Perspectives of the Urban Environment: Geo Guatemala City" in which a diagnosis of the city’s problems was given and a solution offered for each of them. It stressed that with population growth, the horizontal extension of urbanisation, the socioeconomic inequality in the greater metropolitan area, there would also be an increase in territorial imbalances.
Within the National Integrated Solid Waste Administration framework, 3 plans were presented.
The plans include the improvement of integrated management of solid waste, another to create awareness and techniques for separation of solid waste and a final one to recycle solid waste.
The National Plan for the Improvement of Solid Waste management aims at establishing places for treatment and disposal of solid waste.
The recycling industry grows in the region as a way to save costs, create jobs and protect the environment.
"Nicaragua has exported until October of this year about 40 million Dollars in recyclable material, primarily iron, while in 2009 it exported 24 million Dollars," stated as evidence of the sector´s growth Carlos Marin, president of the Recycling Association of that country.
Germany offered the loan at a favorable interest rate, in order to create and build landfills and recycling centers.
In his meeting with President Funes, the German officer received reports of plans developed in Central America related to climate change, security, disaster prevention and others.
Besides thanking the Germany for financing the projects, the Salvadoran President explained to German officials other points related to modernization of the public sector and the fiscal policies to be carried out in El Salvador.
This plant is the first of 42 that are planned to be constructed as part of the National Integrated Solid Waste Management Program.
The signing of an agreement between four councils in south eastern El Salvador, the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) and the Social Investment Fund for Regional Development (FISDL) is the beginning of the process to allocate funds for the studies and designs necessary to develop the composting and recycling facility.
The first landfill from a project to build six will be constructed in the department of La Unión.
These initiatives are included in the National Program for Integral Solid Waste Management, recently unveiled by President Mauricio Funes.
Government authorities visited the department and met with local representatives at the Santa Rosa de Lima landfill, which will be used as a model for the rest of the dump.
The government is planning to spend $28.1 million to build 6 landfills and 43 recycling centers.
The program’s first phase comprises building 6 landfills in different points of the country, strategically located to help municipalities save money by having closer sites where to dump waste. In particular, the new landfills will be located in La Unión, Santa Ana, San Vicente, Ahuachapán, Chalatenango and Morazán.