Costa Rica‘s government issued a directive to prohibit the use of plastic and polystyrene (stereophone) in all public institutions.
President Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Environment and Energy, (MINAE), Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, signed this regulation, which restricts the handling, consumption, and labeling of single-use plastic in public institutions. Likewise, it prohibits the use of activities with polystyrene (stereophone).
The measure indicates that the Ministry of Public Education (MEP), the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), RECOPE and the Ministry of Justice must abstain from the purchase, use, consumption of plastics, and stereophone.
Likewise, the use of such materials in sodas and canteens hired in all primary and secondary education institutions (public and semi-private), health system institutions, and prisons is prohibited. “These actions respond to the unequivocal commitment of this administration to achieve decarbonization of the economy”, said President Alvarado.
According to the National Strategy (2017-2021) on the replacement of single-use plastics, the central government should replace non-biodegradable materials with renewable and compostable alternatives, under the RCM classification scheme (renewable, compostable, compostable in marine environment) in order to contribute to the solution of the problem of pollution generated by plastics in the hydrographic basins of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM), as well as its effects on the Pacific and Caribbean Costa Rican coasts.
