- a)Sidewalk (Acera): Part of the right-of-way, normally located at its edges, reserved for pedestrian traffic.
- b)Storage (Almacenamiento): 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 (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 dogs and cats, exclusively.
- d)Real property (Bien inmueble): Any land with or without constructions or infrastructure works.
- e)Canton (Cantón): Canton of San Ramón.
- f)Ditch or Curb gutter (Caño o Cuneta): Channel through which rainwater flows.
- g)Category (Categoría): Classification of a taxpayer (contribuyente) according to the estimation of waste they generate per month. For this purpose, the generation, composition, and categorization studies of the waste produced, or those most favorable to satisfying the public interest, shall be used as a basis.
- 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): Individual or legal entity to whom, by means of an administrative-legal act, the right is temporarily granted to take charge of the cleaning, collection, transport, treatment, recycling, and/or final disposal service of ordinary waste.
- j)Container (Contenedor): Receptacle intended for the temporary storage (almacenamiento) of solid waste of domestic, commercial, or industrial origin.
- k)Service contract (Contrato de servicios): For the contracting of technical or professional services, by individuals or legal entities, the Administration must follow the administrative contracting procedures.
- l)Taxpayer (Contribuyente): Individual or legal entity that receives municipal services and has the obligation to pay the respective rates.
- m)Effective cost (Costo efectivo): for the purposes of this regulation, the effective cost is the sum of the cost of materials, labor, use of equipment 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 case of external contracting, the amount determined by the invoice of the cost paid by the Municipality to the company or person who carried out the work will be taken, applying the aforementioned.
All of the above, in accordance with Article 74 of the Municipal Code.
- n)Bodies of Water (Cuerpos de Agua): Those spaces constituted by 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 in a definitive and sanitary manner.
- 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 that are multiplied by the residential and institutional rate, to obtain an equitable distribution of the 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): Individual or legal entity, public or private, that generates solid waste, through the development of productive, service, commercialization, or consumption processes that fall under municipal jurisdiction, are divided into two groups: residential and commercial.
- t)Integrated Solid Waste Management (Gestión Integral de Residuos Sólidos, GIRS): 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): Individual or legal entity, 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 Integrated Management of Waste.
- v)Incentives (Incentivos): Refers to the benefit granted to generators who contribute to correct management, demonstrating minimization and the application of the hierarchy in the integrated management of waste established in the decree of Law No. 8839 (Law for the Integrated 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 lucrative activities.
- x)Waste management (Manejo de residuos): Set of technical and operational activities of waste management that includes: storage (almacenamiento), collection, transport, recovery (valorización), treatment, and final disposal.
- y)Municipality (Municipalidad): State legal 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, in order to promote the integral development of the territory in harmony with the national development plan.
- z)License holder (Patentado): Individual or legal entity that has a commercial license (licencia comercial) to engage in lucrative activities.
aa) Municipal Plan for Integrated Solid Waste Management (Plan Municipal de Gestión Integral de Residuos Sólidos, PMGIRS): Instrument that defines cantonal policy on the matter and will guide municipal and/or cantonal actions on the subject within its area of competence.
bb) Owner (Propietario): Individual or legal entity with a property title registered in the National Registry.
- cc)Possessor (Poseedor): Individual or legal entity that exercises dominion over an immovable property without having a title registered in the Public Registry.
dd) Recycling (Reciclaje): Transformation of solid waste through different recovery (valorización) processes that allow its economic and energy value to be restored, thus avoiding its final disposal, as long as this restitution implies savings in energy and raw materials without prejudice to health and the environment.
ee) Collection (Recolección): Action of collecting solid waste of municipal jurisdiction at the generation sources or containers, in accordance with what is established in 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 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 material, post-consumption, whose generator or possessor must or requires disposing of it.
- ii)Biodegradable waste (Residuo biodegradable): Solid or semi-solid waste, of animal or vegetable origin, that can be decomposed into the chemical elements that make it up, due to the action of biological agents, such as plants, microorganisms, and fungi, and utilized through composting (compostaje) and other technologies.
jj) Construction and demolition waste (Residuo de construcción y demolición): Those solid waste 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 waste derived from electronic devices for both domestic and commercial use as described in Annex I of the Regulation for the Integrated Management of Electronic Waste of Costa Rica (Decree No. 35933-S published in La Gaceta No. 86 of May 5, 2010). Components, subassemblies, and consumables that are part of the product are considered part of this waste.
- ll)Waste (Residuo): Solid, semi-solid, liquid, or gas material, whose generator or possessor must or requires disposing of it, and which can or must be recovered (valorizado) or treated responsibly or, failing that, managed by adequate final disposal systems.
mm) Garden waste (Residuo de jardín): Those waste obtained from pruning and garden maintenance tasks, such as: grass, leaves, branches, flowers, fruits, among others. They can be considered as biodegradable waste (residuos biodegradables).
nn) Special management waste (Residuo de manejo especial): Those that due to their composition, transportation needs, storage conditions, forms of use, or recovery value, or a combination of these, imply significant risks to health and systematic degradation of the quality of the ecosystem, for which they need to leave the normal stream of ordinary waste.
oo) Non-recoverable solid waste (Residuo sólido no valorizable): Waste that has no use or recovery value at the moment in the country.
pp) Ordinary waste (Residuo ordinario): Waste of a domestic nature generated in homes and in any other source, that presents compositions similar to those of homes.
Waste of special management or hazardous (peligroso) nature, regulated in this Law and its regulations, is excluded.
qq) Hazardous waste (Residuo peligroso): Any 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 damage to health and the environment.
rr) Sharp-pointed waste (Residuo punzo-cortante): Any object with the capacity to penetrate and/or cut tissues, including surgical medical instruments; laboratory articles, dental instruments, as well as articles of general use: 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 recovery (valorización), such as glass, paper, plastic, metal, cardboard, poly-laminates (tetrapak), electronic waste, white goods, and any other that has reuse potential.
tt) Non-traditional or bulky waste (Residuos no tradicionales o voluminoso): 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 through which it is avoided from the generation source that solid waste be mixed, which allows them to be disposed of separately, for collection purposes.
- vv)Collective storage system (Sistema de almacenamiento colectivo): It is a defined and closed 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 the creditor entity of the tributes and to whom their collection and administration corresponds.
- xx)Passive subject (Sujeto pasivo): Any individual or legal entity obligated to the fulfillment of tax obligations, as a taxpayer (contribuyente), whether as owner or possessor of a land to which the service is provided.
yy) Public service rate (Tasa del servicio público): Tribute whose obligation has as its generating event the effective or potential provision of a public service, individualized to the taxpayer (contribuyente) and whose product must not have a destination separate from the service, the reason for the obligation.
zz) Tariff (Tarifa): Denomination given to the mathematical expression that represents the cost that the taxpayer (contribuyente) must pay for the effective or potential provision of the public service in proportion to the amount generated monthly per unit of weight.
aaa) Treatment (Tratamiento): Transformation of waste or specific parts into new products or the change of characteristics, such as recycling (reciclaje), composting (compostaje), mechanical-biological treatment, thermal treatment, among others.
bbb) Served unit (Unidad servida): Residence, institution, commerce, and industry to which the service is provided.
- ccc)User (Usuario): Domestic or housing unit, license holder (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 production processes, through the recovery of materials and/or energy utilization and the rational use of resources, with present or future technology.
eee) Dump (Vertedero): Site without prior preparation, where waste is deposited, without technique or through very rudimentary techniques, and in which no adequate control is exercised.
fff) Public road (Vía pública): Any land in the public domain destined for the transit of people and vehicles, of common use, which by disposition of the administrative authority is destined for free transit in accordance with the urban and rural legal system. It also includes that land which in fact has been destined for public use.
Municipal Powers and Obligations