Costa Rica News – As most of us know in Costa Rica, problems are normally not addressed until the last minute. But in this case they might want to start thinking ahead and want to get their asses in gear. “Green” Costa Rica is about to have a serious problem.
The National University, along with the Health Ministry, did a study that warns the landfills receiving most of the garbage from the Greater Metropolitan Area (San Jose and it surrounding areas) are about to run out of space.
The facilities at La Carpio should have closed last year and those found in Los Pinos should close in 2016. If they actually close, where will the garbage produced per year be sent?
The only other facility in the GAM is in El Huaso, which is currently working at maximum daily capacity. Other options are to bring the garbage outside of the area or to catch up with the rest of the world and start a recycling program.
There are 9 landfills throughout the country that are under evaluation, according to Freddy Bolaños, chief of the National Environmental Technical Secretariat. Another related problem is that the government froze the gasification of solid waste initiatives.
For anyone in the Costa Rican government that has actually read this study, the time for action is now. We saw how long it took for you to try to build the road from San Jose to Jaco and then you ended up having to subcontract it out.
You might want to address this issue now as it will take at least a year to develop a solution to this impending environmental issue.
Developing a recycling program and implementing it will take a while. Finding other options or locations to dump the trash again will take a while. Constructing a plant to deal with this issue will take even longer.
Although in Costa Rica “Pura Vida”time 2016 is eons away, in regards to this problem a solution needs to be thought of and the process of implementing it needs to have started yesterday.
