TEMPORARY STORAGE (ALMACENAMIENTO TEMPORAL). The place designated for the temporary accumulation of solid waste, in apartment buildings, condominiums, or commercial or service premises, supermarkets, public and private institutions, and industries in general.
URBAN SANITATION (ASEO URBANO). The activities of sweeping the curb line (cordón de caño), cleaning storm drains, parks, green areas in public educational centers, rivers, and streams, as well as vacant lots due to the omission of the owners; also, the collection of bulky or non-traditional waste.
COLLECTION CENTER (CENTRO DE ACOPIO). The place used for the storage, classification, and temporary marketing of usable or recyclable materials.
PLACEMENT (COLOCACIÓN). The placement of waste in containers or bags at the site of its generation, for later collection according to the collection schedule defined by the Municipality (Municipalidad).
COMPOSTING (COMPOSTAJE). The biological degradation process under aerobic conditions of the organic matter present in biodegradable solid waste.
CONTAINER (CONTENEDOR). The device used to hold the containers of wet and dry solid waste until collection; they can be metal baskets, drums, metal or concrete enclosures, or similar.
DIRECTORATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (DIRECCIÓN DE SERVICIOS AMBIENTALES). Entity attached to the Mayor's office, responsible, among other functions, for compliance with environmental regulations applicable to the local government and for collaborating in the definition of policies in the environmental field.
FINAL DISPOSAL (DISPOSICIÓN FINAL). The controlled and environmentally adequate operation of depositing, treating, and/or definitively confining waste, according to its nature.
RUBBLE (ESCOMBROS). Waste from demolition and construction activities.
TRANSFER STATION (ESTACIÓN DE TRANSFERENCIA): facilities where the transfer of solid waste from collection units to higher-capacity transport units is carried out.
GENERATORS OF SOLID WASTE (GENERADORES DE RESIDUOS SÓLIDOS). All users of the system for the collection, hauling, and treatment of wet and dry solid waste, whether or not they are citizens of the Canton. A generator of solid waste is any individual or legal entity, public or private, that produces waste when developing productive, agricultural, service, marketing, or consumption processes.
INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT (GESTIÓN INTEGRAL DE RESIDUOS SÓLIDOS). A set of actions aimed at reducing the quantities of waste to be treated in a sanitary landfill (relleno sanitario) through separated sorting at the source, separate collection, recovery (valorización) through industrialized processes, recycling (reciclaje), and others. It also refers to the articulated set of regulatory, operational, financial, administrative, educational, planning, monitoring, and evaluation actions for the management of solid waste, from its generation to final disposal (disposición final).
MUNICIPALITY (MUNICIPALIDAD). Municipality of Curridabat.
RECYCLING (RECICLAJE): Transformation of waste through different recovery (valorización) processes that allow its economic and energy value to be restored, thus avoiding its final disposal (disposición final), as long as this restitution implies a saving of energy and raw materials without harming health and the environment.
RECEPTACLE (RECIPIENTE). The container used to store waste until its collection, namely, plastic bags, buckets with lids, or similar.
GARDEN WASTE (RESIDUOS DE JARDINES). Waste from the cleaning and trimming (chapea) of gardens and green areas on private lots, including grass, leaves, stems, and branches of shrubs. It does not include trunks more than 10 centimeters in diameter.
ORDINARY WASTE (RESIDUO ORDINARIO). Solid material that its generator or possessor must or needs to dispose of and that can or must be responsibly recovered (valorizado) or, failing that, be managed by appropriate final disposal (disposición final) systems.
HAZARDOUS OR BIO-INFECTIOUS WASTE (RESIDUOS PELIGROSOS O BIO-INFECCIOSOS). Waste that, due to its chemical reactivity and its toxic, explosive, corrosive, radioactive, biological, bio-infectious, and flammable characteristics, or due to its exposure time, can cause harm to health and the environment. This waste can be a reservoir or vehicle for infections. This includes waste from medical offices, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical facilities, also some from industries, chemical products, among others.
WET SOLID WASTE (RESIDUOS SÓLIDOS HÚMEDOS). Includes all ordinary solid waste of an organic type and waste that is not recyclable.
DRY OR RECYCLABLE SOLID WASTE (RESIDUOS SÓLIDOS SECOS O RECICLABLES). Includes all solid waste that can be reintegrated into nature or into production processes, without harming human health or the environment, such as paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum, and plastics, among others.
BULKY, NON-TRADITIONAL, OR SPECIAL WASTE (RESIDUOS VOLUMINOSOS, NO TRADICIONALES O ESPECIALES). Waste disposed of by its owners sporadically, having reached the end of its useful life, which due to its size, volume, and weight is not suitable for ordinary collection; among others, we can cite metallic scrap, furniture, and household appliances. Commercial, industrial waste, rubble (escombros), and others are also included in this definition.
WET SOLID WASTE COLLECTION SERVICE (SERVICIO DE RECOLECCIÓN DE RESIDUOS SÓLIDOS HÚMEDOS). Regular collection service for wet solid waste provided by the Municipality (Municipalidad) in the Canton of Curridabat.
DRY OR RECYCLABLE SOLID WASTE COLLECTION SERVICE (SERVICIO DE RECOLECCIÓN RESIDUOS SÓLIDOS SECOS O RECICLABLES): Regular collection service for dry solid waste provided by the Municipality (Municipalidad) in the Canton.
SPECIAL COLLECTION SERVICE (SERVICIO ESPECIAL DE RECOLECCIÓN). Service that the municipality may provide for the separated collection of specific materials, namely, ordinary, bulky, non-traditional, and special waste. This is possible for cases where a given generator produces an extraordinary amount of waste or also in those cases where a large waste generator requests that the municipality carry out the total collection of waste generated on a regular basis. The special collection service must be settled with the municipality independently of the ordinary payment for the collection service, and the instrument to be used will be a contract concluded between the parties. The charge for this special collection service will be made based on the amount of solid waste to be collected and treated.
SEPARATION (SEPARACIÓN): procedure by which waste is prevented from being mixed from the generating source, to facilitate the use of recoverable (valorizables) materials and avoid their final disposal (disposición final).
RECOVERY (VALORIZACIÓN): set of associated actions whose objective is to recover the value of solid waste for production processes for the improvement of health and the environment.
On the promotion and organization of the separated management of solid waste