Costa Rica wants to take the lead in the region and become an area free of single-use plastic, the kind that is used for very little time, but takes hundreds of years to decompose.
A proposal promoted by the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Ministry of Health, MarViva, the CRUSA Foundation and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the National Chamber of Retailers and Allies (CANACODEA) aims to substitute the consumption of plastic by other renewable and compostable alternatives.
The strategy prompts the substitution of these plastics by non-petroleum renewable materials and marine composites, which means that they must be biodegraded in a time not exceeding six months in the marine environment, transforming into compost, which is the first stage in biodegradation of all organic matter… It also prompts municipal action and encourages the creation of institutional policies and guidelines to replace single-use plastic consumption with renewable and compostable alternatives,”
said a statement released by UNDP.
Data from the Ministry of Health indicate that plastic represents 11% of the four thousand tons of waste produced in Costa Rica every day.
Those interested in this project can cooperate by accessing the site: www.zonalibredeplasticos.org