Nicoya’s municipal council promised yet a new start date — October 1, 2018 — for Nosara garbage collection. The announcement came during a standing-room-only special session on Thursday night, when waste management and other Nosara issues took center stage.
The municipality currently does not offer garbage collection in Nosara, following previously delayed plans on addressing trash in the district. Next week, companies will be able to compete for a contract to collect Nosara’s waste. The contract would last until September 2019, with the possibility of renewal.
Currently 48 percent of the canton receives garbage collection by the company Aurora de Costa Rica, according to Nicoya’s Department of Environmental Management. Expanding the service to Nosara would mean more reliable waste management for up to 1,300 users — 63 percent of the territory.
Depending on how people respond to paying for the service, the contract can be extended,” said Jorge Esquivel from the Department of Environmental Management.
Based on the municipality’s previous proposal, each participating property in Nosara would be charged a monthly minimum of ¢9,800 ($17) and up to ¢147,000 ($260) for businesses. Expansion of the contract could mean greater frequency of pickups, an elongated route or the addition of recyclables to the collection service, added Esquivel.
The question of who will operate the pickup in Nosara remains the legal cog in the machine.
In October 2017 the municipal council approved Nosara trash collection that would have begun the following month. However, the company providing the pickup in Nicoya filed a complaint to the municipality alleging its exclusion from the bidding process that would have expanded its service to Nosara. The complaint derailed the plan; approximately 1,300 Nosara properties in the district would have benefitted from the route.
Jessica Sheffield of the Nosara Recycles presented to the council photos of the Nosara dump — a growing environmental menace that the nonprofit warns could threaten local water supply. The community-run organization has spent 10 years laboring to decrease the amount of local waste through recycling and education.
For Sheffield, the October start-date remains abstract.
“We’ll believe it when we see it,” she said after the session.
Sheffield added that Nosara Recycles appreciates Esquivel’s commitment to solving the problem of trash in Nosara.
The municipal council also voted to allocate funds to three Nosara projects during Thursday’s special session. The Red Cross will receive ¢20,000,000, road maintenance will receive ¢300,000,000, and ¢10,000,000 will be put toward cultural activities in the beachtown.
A plebiscite convened on June 4 on the matter of Nosara gaining administrative independence from Nicoya. The “yes” vote, which Nosara Recycles supported, came 461 votes short of the minimum 6,148 votes necessary. According to Municipal Council President Marcos Ávila, another referendum may be reinstated in two years.
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