Colombia
3.7 Colombia Waste Management and Disposal Providers
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Colombia Waste Management and Disposal Providers

For information on Colombia Waste Management and Disposal Providers contact details, please see the following link:

4.1 Colombia Government Contact List

4.9 Colombia Railway Companies Contact List

Waste Disposal - Non Hazardous

Decree 1713 of 2002 and its amendments, regulates the provision of public disposal and integrated solid waste management in Colombia. It is the duty of the state to provide this service either directly or through companies contracted by public tender for it.
The Integrated Waste Management is the separation process in the source, collection, transportation, storage, treatment or disposal; in this last waste disposal occurs the process of isolating the solid waste that is not usable for the users. within this process are recyclers associations who are social actors and their main activity is collecting recyclable waste, such paper, cardboard, rigid and flexible plastics, which constitutes much of the solid waste disposed.
By late 2013, the waste disposal is performed by 72% of the municipalities in landfills, 15% in dumps, 5.2% in integrated plant, 4.6% in transitional cell, 2% in contingency cell, 1% in water bodies and 0.1% burns.
Landfills must be authorized under an environmental license granted by the Ministry of Environment, which gives according to its capacity, availability, shelf life or duration of the project. For 2013, 12% of the landfills were already zero lifetime, and about 43% life less than 10 years.

Waste Disposal - Hazardous

The management of these wastes is regulated by the Ministry of Environmental and Territorial Development, It consists of four stages:
Storage: This should correspond to a minimum, take all measures and conditions for prevention and control.
Transportation: To ensure minimal environmental impact and health workers, this operation must be established environmental practices, which should be controlled and monitored.
Treatment and disposal or utilization: For electrical and electronic arrangement, the government through resolution 1297 of 2010 provides, that companies producing this material should be extended responsibility and care for these residues, this is how many campaigns are by companies and environmental organizations for the disposal of such waste.
The disposal of waste oils are used as energy in the combustion process, in wood treatment, and immunization. However a lack of enforcement of regulations for good reuse, there is a black market for this waste, and / or improper handling and waste affects the environment.
Among the international conventions governing the proper management of hazardous waste during it life cycle, Colombia has approved or ratified the following: Montreal Protocol to phase out the use of substances that deplete the ozone layer; Basel Convention on the control of trans boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, adopted in 1989; and The Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants, adopted in May 2001.
NATIONAL PLAN OF WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT: by the Ministry of Environment Housing and Territorial Development, this plan provides guidance for the development of local and regional activities to the proper planning, design, implementation and monitoring of the management of wastewater, whether industrial, agricultural, livestock origin, or domestic. However, by 2014, the water treatment in Colombia has become one of the most critical and growing environmental problems. The discharge of domestic wastewater and agricultural discharges are polluting the rivers, groundwater, wetlands and water reservoirs, causing serious damage to the environment and human health.

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