- a)Storage: Action of temporarily retaining waste while it is handed over to the collection service, processed for its utilization or change of its characteristics, or disposed of.
- b)Companion animal: Animal that cohabitates with humans, which, according to the Regulation for the reproduction and responsible ownership of companion animals, Executive Decree No. 31626 of 09/22/2003, shall be understood as a companion animal only to dogs and cats.
- c)Drain or Ditch (Caño o Cuneta): Channel through which stormwater flows.
- d)Category: Classification of a taxpayer according to the estimated waste they generate per month. For this purpose, the generation, composition, and categorization studies of the waste produced in the canton of Tibás, or those that are more favorable to satisfying the public interest, shall be used as a basis.
- e)Scrap: Set of pieces of old or waste metal, especially iron.
- f)Composting: Technique that allows the aerobic decomposition of biodegradable organic matter in a controlled manner to achieve a product usable as a soil improver.
- g)Concessionaire: Physical or legal person to whom, through 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 from the canton.
- h)Container: Receptacle intended for the temporary storage of solid waste of domestic, commercial, or industrial origin.
- i)Taxpayer (Contribuyente): Physical or legal person who receives municipal services and who has the obligation to pay the respective rates, is the passive subject (sujeto pasivo) and may be the registered owner, the possessor (poseedor) of a property without registry inscription, or the usufructuary (usufructuario) of a real estate, as applicable.
- j)Effective cost: for the purposes of this regulation, the effective cost of the service is the sum of the cost of materials, labor, the use of equipment, as well as its depreciation, unforeseen events, administrative and financial expenses, the 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 who performed the work shall be taken, with application of the aforementioned.
- k)Water Bodies: Those spaces constituted by rivers, streams (quebradas), springs (nacientes), lakes, lagoons, reservoirs, wetlands (humedales), permanent or intermittent.
- l)Final disposal: Last stage of the process of solid waste management in which they are disposed of in a definitive and sanitary manner.
- m)Governing body: refers to the Ministry of Health (hereinafter MINSA) n) Minor species (Especies menores): those small animals that could have economic importance and that produce products that can be used in industry and food.
- o)Weighting factor: factor that seeks equivalence between categories when multiplied by the residential rate, to obtain an equitable distribution of service costs.
- p)Generation source: Place where solid waste is generated.
- q)Generator: Physical or legal person, public or private, that generates solid waste through the development of production, service, commercialization, or consumption processes.
- r)Integrated Solid Waste Management (hereinafter 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 its disposal.
- s)Manager (Gestor): Physical 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 Law No. 8839.
- t)Incentives: Refers to the benefit granted to generators that contribute to correct management, demonstrating minimization and the application of the hierarchy in the integrated management of waste established in Law No. 8839.
- u)Commercial license (Licencia comercial): municipal license or municipal patent to carry out commercial activities.
- v)Waste management: Set of technical and operational activities of waste management that includes: storage, collection, transport, valorization, treatment, and final disposal.
- w)Patent holder (Patentado): Physical or legal person who holds a commercial license to carry out commercial activities in the canton.
- x)Municipal Plan for Integrated Management of Solid Waste (hereinafter PMGIRS): Instrument that defines the cantonal policy on the matter and will guide municipal and/or cantonal actions on the subject within its area of competence.
- y)Owner: Physical or legal person with a property title registered in the National Registry.
- z)Possessor (Poseedor): physical or legal person who exercises dominion over a property without having a title registered in the Public Registry.
aa) Recycling: Transformation of solid waste through different valorization processes that allow restoring its economic and energy value, thus avoiding its final disposal, provided that this restoration implies savings in energy and raw materials without harm to health and the environment.
bb) Collection: Action of collecting solid waste of municipal competence from generation sources or containers, in accordance with the provisions of this regulation, to be transferred to transfer stations, treatment facilities, or final disposal.
- cc)Regulation: The present Regulation.
dd) Sanitary Landfill (Relleno Sanitario): Engineering method for the final disposal of solid waste generated in the canton in accordance with the Regulation on Sanitary Landfills (Reglamento de Rellenos Sanitarios), (Executive Decree No. 38928-S of 11/14/2014 and related regulations).
ee) Solid waste: Post-consumption solid or semi-solid material whose generator or possessor must or needs to dispose of it.
ff) Biodegradable waste: Solid or semi-solid waste, of animal or plant origin, that can be decomposed into the chemical elements that constitute it, due to the action of biological agents, such as plants, microorganisms, and fungi, and utilized through composting and other technologies.
gg) Construction and demolition waste: Those solid waste generated in tasks such as: construction, reconstruction, repair, alteration, expansion, and demolition of buildings, and urbanization works of any nature, whether urban or rural.
hh) Electronic waste: Those wastes that derive 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 of 02/12/2010). The components, sub-assemblies, and consumables that are part of the product are considered part of this waste.
- ii)Waste: Solid, semi-solid, liquid, or gas material, whose generator or possessor must or needs to dispose of it, and that can or must be valorized or treated responsibly or, failing that, be managed by appropriate final disposal systems.
jj) Garden and pruning waste: Garden waste is that waste obtained from the maintenance tasks of gardens, such as: grass, leaves, flowers, fruits, among others. Pruning waste refers to the branches and trunks of trees.
kk) Waste requiring special management (Residuo de manejo especial): Are 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, and therefore need to leave the normal stream of ordinary waste.
- ll)Non-valorizable waste: Waste that does not have use value or recovery value at the moment in the country.
mm) Ordinary waste: Waste of a domestic nature generated in homes and any other source, which presents compositions similar to those of homes. Waste requiring special or hazardous management (manejo especial o peligroso), regulated in this Law and its regulation, is excluded.
nn) Hazardous waste: Any waste that, due to its chemical reactivity and its toxic, explosive, corrosive, radioactive, biological, infectious-contagious, and flammable characteristics, or that due to its time of exposure, may cause harm to health and the environment.
oo) Sharp-cutting waste: Any object with the capacity to penetrate and/or cut tissues, including surgical medical 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.
pp) Valorizable waste: 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.
qq) Non-traditional or bulky waste: 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.
rr) Waste separation: Procedure by which solid waste is prevented from mixing from the generating source, allowing it to be disposed of separately, for collection purposes.
ss) Collective storage system: A defined and enclosed area, intended for the temporary collective storage of solid waste, awaiting the collection service.
tt) Passive subject (Sujeto pasivo): Any physical or legal person obligated to comply with tax obligations, in the capacity of taxpayer (contribuyente), either as the owner or possessor (poseedor) of a land to which the service is provided.
uu) Public service rate: Tax (Tasa del servicio público) whose obligation has as its generating event the effective or potential provision of a public service, individualized for the taxpayer, and whose proceeds must not have a destination unrelated to the service that is the reason for the obligation.
- vv)Tariff: Denomination given to the mathematical expression representing 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.
ww) Treatment: Transformation of waste or specific parts into new products or the change of characteristics, such as recycling, composting, mechanical-biological treatment, thermal treatment, among others.
- xx)Unit served: Residence, institution, commercial establishment, and industry to which the service is provided.
yy) Usufructuary (Usufructuario): Physical person who holds a real right of enjoyment over a real estate belonging to another person.
zz) Valorization: Set of associated actions whose objective is to give added 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.
aaa) Open dump (Vertedero): Site without prior preparation, where waste is deposited, without technique or using very rudimentary techniques, and in which adequate control is not exercised.
bbb) Public road: It is all land of public domain and common use, that by provision of the administrative authority is designated for free transit in accordance with urban legal planning.
Municipal Management