Tortuguero community recycling and composting project

Barra de Tortuguero is a town located in the canton of Pococí, in the northern Caribbean of Costa Rica. Surrounded by rivers and canals, it is accessible only by boat or small boats. It has a population of approximately 2500 people whose main source of employment is tourism and the services it demands, thanks to the nearby presence of the Tortuguero National Park.

Tortuguero National Park is part of the Northwest Caribbean RAMSAR site, declared a Wetland of International Importance since 1996. This Protected Wildlife Area hosts the nesting of four species of sea turtles, is the largest feline habitat in the Americas, and protects manatees and other endangered populations. Data from the National System of Conservation Areas report that 209,000 tourists visited the park in 2022, making it the fifth most visited national park in the country.

The high demand for lodging and food services, coupled with the difficult access to the town, puts a great deal of pressure on the integrated management of solid waste, which amounts to up to 50 tons per month.  For the Municipality of Pococí, responsible for the collection and final disposal of solid waste, the task is particularly challenging because it must provide the service and avoid practices that generate environmental damage due to inadequate management, such as disposal in rivers, burying and burning waste, which pollutes the air, bodies of water, and turtle nesting areas.

In 2006, community members formed the Barra del Tortuguero Recycling Plant Association and established a public-private partnership with the Municipality of Pococí to provide collection, recycling, and recently composting services for organic waste. The initiative is widely supported by local organizations such as the Environmental Committee of Tortuguero, the Association of Volunteers of CR (ASVO), and the National Park authorities, from which strong educational and awareness-raising efforts are being carried out with schools and businesses, as well as beach cleanup campaigns.

At the Recycling Plant, recoverable waste is separated and subsequently sold as raw material for other processes, investing the profits in the continuity of the service. Since 2019, with the commissioning of an automated composter, 550 kilos of organic waste are transformed into 150 kilos of compost in 24 hours, and with the processing of leachates, foliar fertilizers are also obtained.  

The plastic material goes through three sub-processes: crushing, grinding and agglomeration. The agglomerated plastic is added to cement for the production of building blocks. Finally, the glass is separated by color to be ground and maximized for packaging at 220 kilograms per tin, which is sold as raw material.  

Since 2019, the Association has received a donation of $88,189 USD from the Embassy of Japan and another of approximately $22,000 USD from the Embassy of Germany. This support has allowed the acquisition of modern and efficient equipment to process organic matter and plastic.  

The collection center is managed by the Tortuguero Recylcing Plant Association, which is made up of members of the community. It receives support from the Municipality of Pococí, which designated two municipal officials and contributed resources for the construction of the collection center and the purchase of two quadricycles to collect waste from homes and businesses. In addition, every 10 days the company hauls ordinary waste by river for treatment and final disposal in a landfill site.  

The main challenge at the Tortuguero Recycling Plant is to increase the amount of materials recovered for processing and reduce the amount of compost accumulated at the plant by finding better ways to use it outside the community.

This climate solution is aligned with axis 7 of the National Decarbonization Plan, which proposes the "Development of an integrated waste management system based on separation, reuse, recovery and final disposal with maximum efficiency and low greenhouse gas emissions".

Likewise, it responds to the sixth area of action of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 2020), where Costa Rica commits to "... develop an integrated waste management system based on avoiding, reducing, reusing, recovering, treating and disposing of waste with maximum efficiency and low greenhouse gas emissions".