- a)Sidewalk (Acera): Part of the right-of-way, normally located at its edges, reserved for pedestrian traffic.
- b)Storage (Almacenamiento): The action of temporarily retaining waste while it is delivered to the collection service, processed for its utilization or change of its characteristics, or disposed of.
- c)Companion animal (Animal de compañía): Animal that lives with human beings. In accordance with the Regulation for the Reproduction and Responsible Ownership of Companion Animals (Reglamento para la reproducción y tenencia responsable de animales de compañía) (No. 31626-S of September 22, 2003, and published in La Gaceta No. 26 of February 6, 2004), companion animal shall be understood to mean only dogs and cats.
- d)Real property (Bien inmueble): Any land with or without constructions or infrastructure works.
- e)Canton (Cantón): Canton of San Ramón.
- f)Drain or Ditch (Caño o Cuneta): Channel through which rainwater flows.
- g)Category (Categoría): Classification of a taxpayer according to the estimate of waste they generate per month. For this purpose, the basis shall be the studies of generation, composition, and categorization of the waste produced, or those most favorable to satisfying the public interest.
- h)Composting (Compostaje): Technique that allows the aerobic decomposition of biodegradable organic matter in a controlled manner to achieve a product usable as a soil improver.
- i)Concessionaire (Concesionario): Natural or legal person to whom, through an administrative-legal act, the right to take charge of the service of cleaning, collection, transport, treatment, recycling, and/or final disposal of ordinary waste is temporarily granted.
- j)Container (Contenedor): Receptacle intended for the temporary storage of solid waste of domestic, commercial, or industrial origin.
- k)Service contract (Contrato de servicios): For the contracting of technical or professional services, provided by natural or legal persons, the Administration must follow the administrative contracting procedures.
- l)Taxpayer (Contribuyente): Natural or legal person who receives municipal services and who is obligated to pay the respective fees.
- m)Effective cost (Costo efectivo): for the purposes of this regulation, effective cost is the sum of the cost of materials, labor, equipment use as well as its depreciation, contingencies, administrative and financial expenses, cost of collection, disposal, and treatment of solid waste if required, as well as other direct and indirect costs related to the work, plus ten percent (10%) profit for development. In the event of external contracting, the amount determined by the invoice for the cost paid by the Municipality to the company or person that carried out the work shall be taken, applying the foregoing.
All of the foregoing, in accordance with Article 74 of the Municipal Code (Código Municipal).
- n)Water bodies (Cuerpos de Agua): Those spaces consisting of rivers, streams, springs (nacientes), lakes, lagoons, reservoirs, wetlands, permanent or intermittent.
- o)Final disposal (Disposición final): Last stage of the solid waste management process, in which they are disposed of definitively and sanitarily.
- p)Governing body (Ente rector): refers to the Ministry of Health.
- q)Weighting factor (Factor de ponderación): The range in which a user is placed according to the factors multiplied by the residential and institutional fee, to obtain an equitable distribution of service costs, according to the amount of waste they generate.
- r)Generation source (Fuente de generación): Place where solid waste is generated.
- s)Generator (Generador): Natural or legal person, public or private, that generates solid waste, through the development of production, service, commercialization, or consumption processes that fall under municipal jurisdiction; they are divided into two groups: residential and commercial.
- t)Integral Solid Waste Management (Gestión Integral de Residuos Sólidos) (GIRS): The articulated and interrelated set of regulatory, operational, financial, administrative, educational, planning, monitoring, and evaluation actions for the management of solid waste, from its generation to disposal.
- u)Manager (Gestor): Natural or legal person, public or private, registered and authorized by the Ministry of Health for the total or partial management of solid waste, in accordance with Article 32 of the Law for the Integral Management of Waste (Ley para la Gestión Integral de Residuos).
- v)Incentives (Incentivos): Refers to the benefit granted to generators who contribute to proper management, demonstrating minimization and the application of the hierarchy in the integral management of waste established in the Decree of Law No. 8839 (Law for the Integral Management of Waste published in the official gazette La Gaceta No. 135 of July 13, 2010).
- w)Commercial license (Licencia comercial): municipal license to engage in for-profit activities.
- x)Waste management (Manejo de residuos): Set of technical and operational activities of waste management that includes: storage, collection, transport, recovery (valorización), treatment, and final disposal.
- y)Municipality (Municipalidad): Legal state entity with territorial jurisdiction over the canton of San Ramón (except the district of Peñas Blancas, which has a District Council with its own functional autonomy). It is responsible for the administration of local services and interests, with the aim of promoting the integral development of the territory in harmony with the national development plan.
- z)Licensee (Patentado): Natural or legal person who holds a commercial license to engage in for-profit activities.
aa) Municipal Plan for Integral Solid Waste Management (Plan Municipal de Gestión Integral de Residuos Sólidos) (PMGIRS): Instrument that defines the cantonal policy on the matter and will guide municipal and/or cantonal actions on the topic within its area of competence.
bb) Owner (Propietario): Natural or legal person with a property title registered in the National Registry (Registro Nacional).
- cc)Possessor (Poseedor): natural or legal person who exercises control over a property without having a title registered in the Public Registry (Registro Público).
dd) Recycling (Reciclaje): Transformation of solid waste through different recovery (valorización) processes that allow restoring its economic and energy value, thus avoiding its final disposal, provided that this restoration implies a saving of energy and raw materials without detriment to health and the environment.
ee) Collection (Recolección): Action of collecting solid waste under municipal jurisdiction at the generation sources or from receptacles, in accordance with the provisions of this regulation, to be transferred to transfer stations, treatment facilities, or final disposal.
ff) Regulation (Reglamento): This Regulation.
gg) Sanitary Landfill (Relleno Sanitario): Engineering method for the final disposal of solid waste generated in the territory in accordance with the Regulation on Sanitary Landfills (Reglamento de Rellenos Sanitarios) and other current and related legislation (Executive Decree No. 27378-S Regulation on Sanitary Landfills, published in the official gazette La Gaceta No. 202 of October 22, 1993).
hh) Solid waste (Residuo sólido): Solid or semi-solid post-consumer material that its generator or possessor must or needs to dispose of.
- ii)Biodegradable waste (Residuo biodegradable): Solid or semi-solid waste of animal or plant origin, which can be decomposed into its chemical components, due to the action of biological agents, such as plants, microorganisms, and fungi, and utilized through composting and other technologies.
jj) Construction and demolition waste (Residuo de construcción y demolición): Those solid wastes generated in tasks such as: the construction, reconstruction, repair, alteration, expansion, and demolition of buildings, and urbanization works of any nature, whether urban or rural.
kk) Electronic waste (Residuo electrónico): Those wastes derived from electronic devices for both domestic and commercial use, as described in Annex I of the Regulation for the Integral Management of Electronic Waste of Costa Rica (Reglamento para la Gestión Integral de los Residuos Electrónicos de Costa Rica) (Decree No. 35933-S published in La Gaceta No. 86 of May 5, 2010). Components, subassemblies, and consumables that form part of the product are considered part of this waste.
- ll)Waste (Residuo): Solid, semi-solid, liquid, or gaseous material that its generator or possessor must or needs to dispose of, and that can or must be recovered (valorizado) or treated responsibly or, failing that, be managed by adequate final disposal systems.
mm) Garden waste (Residuo de jardín): Those wastes obtained from pruning and garden maintenance tasks, such as: grass, leaves, branches, flowers, fruits, among others. They can be considered biodegradable waste.
nn) Special handling waste (Residuo de manejo especial): Those that, due to their composition, transport needs, storage conditions, forms of use, or recovery value, or a combination thereof, pose significant risks to health and systematic degradation of the quality of the ecosystem, and therefore need to be removed from the normal stream of ordinary waste.
oo) Non-recoverable solid waste (Residuo sólido no valorizable): Waste that currently has no use or recovery value in the country.
pp) Ordinary waste (Residuo ordinario): Waste of a domestic nature generated in homes and in any other source, presenting compositions similar to those from homes.
Special handling or hazardous waste, regulated in this Law and its regulations, are excluded.
qq) Hazardous waste (Residuo peligroso): All waste that, due to its chemical reactivity and its toxic, explosive, corrosive, radioactive, biological, infectious-contagious, and flammable characteristics, or due to its exposure time, may cause harm to health and the environment.
rr) Sharp-cutting waste (Residuo punzo-cortante): Any object capable of penetrating and/or cutting tissues, including medical-surgical instruments; laboratory articles, dental instruments, as well as general use articles: such as light bulbs (all types), fluorescent tubes, all types of staples, metal and plastic bands.
ss) Recoverable waste (Residuo valorizable): Waste that, due to its potential reuse value, can be recovered for its valorization, such as glass, paper, plastic, metal, cardboard, poly-laminates (tetrapak), electronics, white goods, and any other that has reuse potential.
tt) Non-traditional or bulky waste (Residuos no tradicionales o voluminosos): Those objects disposed of by their owners sporadically, having reached the end of their useful life, which, due to their size, weight, or characteristics, are not suitable for ordinary collection.
uu) Waste separation (Separación de residuos): Procedure by which solid waste is prevented from mixing at the generating source, allowing it to be disposed of separately, for collection purposes.
- vv)Collective storage system (Sistema de almacenamiento colectivo): A defined and enclosed area, intended for the temporary collective storage of solid waste, awaiting the collection service.
ww) Active subject (Sujeto activo): in this case refers to the Municipality, as it is the entity entitled to the taxes and responsible for their collection and administration.
- xx)Passive subject (Sujeto pasivo): Any natural or legal person obligated to fulfill tax obligations, as a taxpayer, either as the owner or possessor of a land to which the service is provided.
yy) Public service fee (Tasa del servicio público): A tax whose obligation is generated by the effective or potential provision of a public service, individualized to the taxpayer, and whose revenue must not have a destination unrelated to the service that is the reason for the obligation.
zz) Tariff (Tarifa): Name given to the mathematical expression that represents the cost that the taxpayer must pay for the effective or potential provision of the public service in proportion to the quantity generated monthly per unit of weight.
aaa) Treatment (Tratamiento): Transformation of waste or specific parts into new products or change of characteristics, such as recycling, composting, mechanical-biological treatment, thermal treatment, among others.
bbb) Unit served (Unidad servida): Residence, institution, commercial establishment, and industry to which the service is provided.
- ccc)User (Usuario): Domestic or housing unit, licensee (patentado), state entity, or any other non-governmental organization to which the collection, disposal, and treatment service is provided.
ddd) Recovery (Valorización): Set of associated actions whose objective is to give monetary value to waste for productive processes, through the recovery of materials and/or energy utilization and the rational use of resources, with present or future technology.
eee) Open dump (Vertedero): A site without prior preparation, where waste is deposited, without technique or using very rudimentary techniques, and where adequate control is not exercised.
fff) Public thoroughfare (Vía pública): Any land in the public domain intended for the transit of people and vehicles, for common use, which by provision of the administrative authority is destined for free transit in accordance with urban and rural legal planning. It also includes land that has in fact been destined for public use.
Municipal Powers and Obligations