Recycling in the permit: six cubic yards per fifty units

It is Chapter 9.9 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, inside the infrastructure and environment volume. Its provisions establish the evaluation process for all project applications related to handling and disposing of solid waste, plus the development and siting of recyclable materials recovery centres or areas. The siting of final-disposal and waste-handling facilities — sanitary landfill systems, transfer stations and materials recovery plants, among others — must conform to the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources’ public policy. This guide is the permit one: what must be designed, sized and documented before building. The rights of residents in an already-built complex come from Act 61-2002 and are covered by our guide on recycling in housing complexes.

It applies, without limitation, to residential projects, segregations and commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational, service or tourist buildings. Every construction project for public or private residential complexes, whether apartments or houses, must designate an area for recovering recyclable materials. Every commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational or mixed development must also designate a recovery area, complying with the same sections and with two extra requirements: recycling cooking oil in buildings dedicated to food service, and providing in shopping centres the electrical infrastructure to install a cardboard compactor.

• Placing the common containers for non-recyclable waste in the buildings’ rear or side yards and building fences that screen them from view from the street or abutting properties.Verified against the official source
• Including in the filing before OGPe or the hierarchy I-III autonomous municipality the collection, storage and disposal areas for solid waste, and providing adequate infrastructure so the collection company can collect from the designated areas.Verified against the official source
• Designating a recyclable materials recovery area independent of the common waste area, with adequate infrastructure for its conservation, provided with water services for its maintenance, built in concrete or concrete block and signposted as a Recyclable Materials Recovery Centre or Area (CRMR).Verified against the official source
• Designing the area according to the number of units to be built and the number of persons per basic dwelling unit, accommodating containers with capacity for six cubic yards of recyclable materials for every fifty basic dwelling units.Verified against the official source
• Providing the space needed to site one container per material to be recovered, among others glass, plastic, aluminium, cardboard and paper, with containers bearing the recycling emblem.Verified against the official source
• In buildings dedicated to food service: recycling cooking oil, providing containers with capacity to accumulate one hundred gallons of used cooking oil. In shopping centres: providing the electrical infrastructure needed to install a compactor for handling cardboard.Verified against the official source
• Submitting a copy of the collection centre’s Operation Permit to the DRNA once granted.Verified against the official source

• An Explanatory Memorial with the project’s description — location, communal facilities, land capacity, number of employees, dwelling units or number of premises and area in square feet — the areas designated for separating and storing recyclable materials, the construction time, the waste to be generated in construction and operation, and the estimated construction cost of the recycling area including its containers.
• Identification of the entity responsible — municipality or private company — for collecting and disposing of the waste during the construction and operation phases, and of the one to be considered for handling through reduction, reuse and recycling; where the municipality provides the service, evidence of the commitment.
• Alternatives for handling vegetative material and wood pallets where the chosen landfill will not accept that material; the disposal site and the alternatives presented must be ratified by the DRNA.
• A location plan of the CRMR or CRMRs within the project, with a details sheet for the designated areas, dimensions, capacity and distribution of the common and recyclable containers, identifying the children’s play area where applicable, and certified by the licensed professional who prepared it where applicable.
• A construction plan: a details sheet with the CRMR’s and the common waste area’s measurements or dimensions, showing the water intake and including the space the containers will occupy and their capacity in cubic yards.
• For a collection centre: a recommendation request letter signed by the mayor or their authorised representative, or by the project owner where the proponent is private, with the detailed twenty-point description the chapter lists — from the justification and exact location to the employees’ basic safety equipment, the vector and odour control measures and the contact person.

1. 1

   Step 1: What the chapter covers

   These provisions establish the evaluation process for all project applications related to handling and disposing of solid waste, plus the development and siting of recyclable materials recovery centres or areas. This applies, without limitation, to residential projects, segregations and commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational, service or tourist buildings. And the siting of final-disposal and waste-handling facilities — sanitary landfill systems, transfer stations and materials recovery plants, among others — must conform to the DRNA’s public policy.

2. 2

   Step 2: Ordinary waste: to the back yard and behind a fence

   The common containers for disposing of non-recyclable waste are placed in the buildings’ rear or side yards, and fences shall be built to screen them from view from the street or abutting properties. When filing before OGPe or the hierarchy I-III autonomous municipality, the collection, storage and disposal areas for solid waste must be included in residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational, service or tourist buildings. And the project shall provide adequate infrastructure so the company collecting and hauling this waste can collect it from the designated areas.

3. 3

   Step 3: The recycling area: ten conditions

   Every construction project for public or private residential complexes, whether apartments or houses, must designate an area for recovering recyclable materials. It shall be independent of the common area for collecting, storing and disposing of solid waste. It shall have adequate infrastructure for its conservation and maintenance. The facilities needed so the companies collecting and hauling to collection or processing centres can collect from the designated areas shall be provided. It shall be provided with water services for its maintenance and conservation and must meet any other DRNA requirement. It shall be designed according to the number of units to be built and the number of persons per basic dwelling unit. Areas shall be designated and designed to hold containers with capacity for six cubic yards of recyclable materials for every fifty basic dwelling units. They shall be built in concrete or concrete block and have containers for recovery. The area shall be signposted as a Recyclable Materials Recovery Centre or Area. It shall provide the space needed to site one container per material to be recovered — glass, plastic, aluminium, cardboard and paper, without limitation. And if the complex is subject to the Horizontal Property Act, the area shall be considered a general common element, since it will be built on the complex’s grounds.

4. 4

   Step 4: The table: from 32 gallons to six cubic yards

   The minimum space required for the recyclable materials recovery area is set by dwelling units as follows: one unit, thirty-two gallons; two units, fifty-five gallons; three units, ninety-six gallons; four units, ninety-six gallons; five to twelve units, one cubic yard; thirteen to twenty, two cubic yards; twenty-one to thirty, three cubic yards; thirty-one to forty, four cubic yards; forty-one to forty-nine, five cubic yards; fifty units, six cubic yards; and fifty-one onwards, rounding the result. The chapter also prints the formulas for container capacity: the pounds of recyclable material generated per day come from multiplying the dwelling units by the average persons per unit, by the pounds generated per day per person, by the percentage of material recovered; the pounds per week are that result multiplied by seven; and the relative density the regulation uses to convert to cubic yards is four hundred pounds per cubic yard.

5. 5

   Step 5: Commerce, industry and tourism: the oil and the compactor

   Every commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational or mixed development must also designate an area for recovering recyclable materials, complying with the same provisions and the same space table. And it adds two demands of its own. In buildings dedicated to food service, recycling cooking oil is required, and containers with capacity to accumulate one hundred gallons of used cooking oil must be provided. In shopping centres, the electrical infrastructure needed to install a compactor for handling cardboard must be provided.

6. 6

   Step 6: Vegetative material and wood pallets

   This is the memorial item that delays the most projects. Chapter IX of the DRNA’s Regulation for the Reduction, Reuse and Recycling of Solid Waste of Puerto Rico, in force, prohibits disposing of vegetative material and wood pallets in the country’s sanitary landfill systems that do not comply with that chapter. Therefore, alternatives for handling these materials must be presented where the chosen landfill will not accept that type of material at its facility. And the disposal site, as well as the alternatives presented, must be ratified by the DRNA. We did not read that DRNA regulation; we name it because the chapter sends readers to it.

7. 7

   Step 7: Permit for a collection centre

   For recyclable materials collection centres, a recommendation request letter signed by the mayor or their authorised representative must be submitted; where the proponent is private, the project owner’s or their representative’s signature is required. With it goes a detailed twenty-point description: description and justification of the proposed action; purpose and need; exact location and area occupied; available infrastructure — water, power, telephone, sanitary services, office and others; a site plan or sketch and a vehicle-flow diagram for unloading the materials, plus photographs of the site; title to the facility or land; operating hours; type and estimated quantity of materials to be handled in tons, cubic yards or pounds; the method or procedure for segregation and storage; the project’s service area, that is, the municipalities to be served; description, condition and capacity of the storage area; number of employees; employees’ basic safety equipment, verifying with PROSHA where possible; storage frequency and period; the company that will collect and transport; the materials’ final destination or market; measures for controlling vectors and objectionable odours; the estimated quantity, storage and haulage method and final disposal site for non-hazardous solid waste that cannot be recovered; measures and basic equipment available for emergencies or accidents; and a contact person. Once the centre’s Operation Permit is granted, a copy shall be submitted to the DRNA.

8. 8

   Step 8: What may not be collected or done there

   The following may not be collected, without limitation: biomedical waste; putrescibles, including food or fruit remains; hazardous waste; scrap metal; household appliances and electronic goods; and animals. Nor may activities foreign to the purpose for which the recovery area was designed or built be carried out, among them: recovering properly collected materials for the purpose of selling them for personal benefit or by scavengers; using the water service for purposes other than the CRMR’s maintenance and conservation — the regulation gives washing motor vehicles and animals as an example; and disposing of recovered materials in the recovery areas or in intermediate areas in sanitary landfill systems. Containers shall preferably be metal, recycled plastic as far as possible and depending on market availability, or any other durable material compatible with the collection trucks’ system; and they must bear the recycling emblem.

9. 9

   Step 9: The waiver that does not exempt

   Where the development’s proponent shows it cannot comply with the established provisions, and provided the public interest is protected, a partial waiver of strict compliance with the requirements may be granted, stating the grounds justifying it; each case is evaluated on its merits. But the regulation clarifies the figure’s nature in one sentence: this waiver is to vary the requirements, in particular cases where the proponent cannot comply with the established provisions, but it does not exempt from compliance. And it names what will not be grounds for a waiver, without limitation: space, the project’s or the CRMR’s construction costs and landscaping details.

Before OGPe or the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality, as applicable, as part of the project’s filing: the collection, storage and disposal areas and the CRMR are included in the plans and in the memorial. For collection centres, the recommendation request letter is signed by the mayor or their authorised representative, or by the project owner where the proponent is private; and once the centre’s Operation Permit is granted, a copy is submitted to the DRNA. The disposal site for vegetative material and wood pallets, and the alternatives presented, must be ratified by the DRNA.

• Putting the recycling area inside the common waste area: it must be independent.
• Designing it without water service for its maintenance and conservation.
• Sizing by eye instead of using the chapter’s table and formulas.
• Forgetting one container per material to be recovered, or containers without the recycling emblem.
• Not signposting the area as a Recyclable Materials Recovery Centre or Area.
• In a food-service building, not providing the hundred gallons of capacity for used oil.
• Not presenting alternatives for vegetative material and wood pallets where the landfill will not accept them.
• Counting on the waiver for lack of space or on cost grounds: the chapter expressly says those are not grounds.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov

• Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

  drna

  www.drna.pr.gov