Through Governmental Agreement 164-2021 of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance, published on August 10 of this year in the Official Journal, the Regulation for the Integral Management of Waste and Common Solid Waste is issued with the aim of establishing the sanitary and environmental standards applicable to the management of common solid waste and thereby ensuring the protection of human health and avoiding pollution to the environment.
The authorities responsible for the compliance of this regulation are the Municipalities, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance. Through this regulation, municipal plans are created for the integral management of waste and solid waste, which will be elaborated in coordination with the Municipalities and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to prevent impacts related to the water, soil, biotic, atmospheric, and visual environmental systems regulated in the Law on Protection and Improvement of the Environment Decree No. 68-86 of the Congress of the Republic.
The Regulation lays down the conditions of occupational health and safety without conditioning, limiting or restricting the scope laid down in the regulations in force in this field; and establishing that any entity that is part of the stages of the integral management of waste and solid waste must be responsible for designing the preventive and corrective maintenance plans of any infrastructure work, facilities, vehicles, machinery, equipment and accessories that are used for this purpose, executing these maintenance plans strictly and permanently in accordance with the technical guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. It also regulates matters relating to the immunization of the personnel, minimum standards in the facilities, the obligation for staff to have health cards and the respective pest control.
An important aspect of the regulation is that any individual or legal person producing common solid wastes must separate them at the time of their generation in accordance with the classification established in the regulation, which is divided into primary (organic and inorganic) and secondary (1. Paper and cardboard, 2. Glass, 3. Plastic, 4. Metal, 5. Multilayer and 6. Other). During the first two years of the regulation's validity, the separation will be carried out in accordance with the primary classification, however, the municipalities that provide it in accordance with their policies and plans for the management of waste and solid waste may immediately use the secondary classification, whose application is mandatory at the expiration of the two years mentioned above. In addition to classification and separation, the regulation creates provisions relating to storage, collection, transport, transfer, recovery, recycling, treatment of common solid waste, final disposal of common solid waste and complementary services.
A period of 24 months as a period of adaptation is established, counted from the entry into force of the Regulation (August 11, 2021) to the entities subject to comply with the provisions and comply with their obligations.
Prior to its execution, any infrastructure and installation work that is used for the management of solid waste is subject to obtaining sanitary authorization in accordance with the technical standards of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance, which must establish the respective procedure. Similarly, to comply with the provisions established in the regulations, the entities in charge of collection and transport, transfer, recovery and recycling, treatment and final disposal must have the environmental authorization before the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, which must establish the respective procedure.
Regarding the registration of managers, the regulation establishes that all entities except for the generating entities (of solid waste) within a period of no more than 3 months from the adaptation period must submit general information on their activities to the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance in accordance with the electronic tool that they will enable for this purpose.
Failure to comply with this regulation will be subject to the infractions and penalties established therein and applicable health norms.
