“AIREN requests review before enacting changes to the Waste Law”

The Association of Industrialists of the Northern Region (AIREN) called on the competent authorities to carry out a technical review of the amendments to Law 225-20 on Comprehensive Management and Co-processing of Solid Waste before they come into effect, in order to assess their impact on the national industry, especially on small and medium-sized enterprises, and to ensure that the established contribution responds to criteria of equity, proportionality, and contributory capacity.

The guild refers to the modifications to article 36, regarding the mandatory special contribution for solid waste management, approved this Tuesday by the Senate of the Republic. While AIREN supports the strengthening of the national waste management system, it understands that a measure with significant implications for the productive sector must be based on technical criteria and enriched through a listening process that incorporates the vision of the involved sectors before it comes into effect.

“Every mandatory contribution must respond to objective technical criteria and consider the reality of the companies that sustain formal employment and national production. We are concerned that a contribution structure that does not reflect the differences between industries will end up disproportionately affecting small and medium-sized enterprises, which constitute the majority of the country’s productive fabric,” stated Luis José Bonilla, president of AIREN.

The guild reaffirmed that environmental sustainability and industrial competitiveness must go hand in hand. In this sense, it joins the willingness of other sectors and guilds to participate in technical dialogue spaces that allow for strengthening the implementation of the law, guaranteeing a balanced, applicable, and sustainable regulation for both the environment and national productive development.