Analysis of the solid waste management in Alvarado, Costa Rica

This paper documents the situation of integral management of solid waste in the Alvarado Municipality. We analyzed the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, that the municipality has experimented in the last 10 years, related with the solid waste. The results of this research, shows that Alvarado Municipality is an example of good management of solid waste at national level, despite that the "Contraloria General de la Republica" classifies them as unsatisfactory. We collected and analyzed the bibliographic information available, interviewed the principal social actors, developed instruments for collection of information, made field work, resumed and analyzed all that information, in order that we could systemize and analyze the next topics: 1) Management of the solid waste: covertures percent, characteristics of street and park cleaning, description of municipal landfill, 2) description of the integral management of solid waste, implementation of the GIR Law of the integral management of solid waste, and description of the Contraloria General de la Republica indicators for environmental efficiencies.