Outside waste in Puerto Rico landfills: the ban that admits no exceptions

It is the law that closes Puerto Rico’s landfills to waste generated outside the island. What stands out is how it is written: it does not merely prohibit, it expressly says the prohibition shall admit no exceptions or regulation, municipal ordinance or contract to the contrary. That is, a contract authorizing otherwise does not defeat it.

The prohibition reaches all landfills and sanitary landfills in Puerto Rico, whether of the Government, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, public corporations and municipalities, or of any other state, municipal or private subdivisions or entities, including similar facilities or facilities of any kind. The penalty reaches any person who violates it.

• That it involve solid waste generated outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.Verified against the official source
• That the handling or disposal occur at a landfill or sanitary landfill in Puerto Rico, public or private.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The prohibition reaches private landfills too

   The article enumerates on purpose: handling and disposal is prohibited at all landfills and sanitary landfills in Puerto Rico, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, public corporations and municipalities, “and any other state, municipal or private subdivisions or entities, including landfills and sanitary landfills and similar facilities or facilities of any kind.” There is no back door through private ownership.

2. 2

   Step 2: No regulation, ordinance or contract defeats it

   It is the sentence that gives this law its force: “This prohibition shall admit no exceptions or regulatory provisions, municipal ordinances or contracts to the contrary.” If someone tells you a municipality authorized it by ordinance or that there is a contract permitting it, the text answers that directly.

3. 3

   Step 3: The cruise and aircraft carve-out, and its fit

   It is narrow and the law builds it as a fiction: solid waste discharged in Puerto Rico by or from cruise ships, aircraft and any other type of maritime or air vessel “in regular service” of passenger or cargo transportation to or from Puerto Rico, generated “incidentally to that service” and discharged at Puerto Rico’s sea or air ports, shall be understood as generated within Puerto Rico’s jurisdiction, permitting its final disposal in those landfills. Three conditions at once: regular service, incidental generation, and discharge at PR ports.

4. 4

   Step 4: Recyclables imported to be recycled are not waste

   The law clarifies it in its own article: for its purposes, recyclable materials defined by law or regulation that are transported to Puerto Rico specifically for the purpose of being recycled or processed at recycling, treatment or processing facilities located on the Island shall not be considered solid waste. The word “specifically” does the work.

5. 5

   Step 5: The fine

   Any person who violates this law commits a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined five thousand (5,000) dollars. The law fixes the figure, not a range.

6. 6

   Step 6: Where to take it

   The law creates no complaint procedure and designates no enforcing agency. In practice there are two routes: the environmental complaint before the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, which we cover in its own guide, and a report to the Police since it is a misdemeanor. Note date, place, facility and any information about the waste’s origin.

The Department of Natural and Environmental Resources is the environmental door for a complaint; the Puerto Rico Police, the criminal one. It is worth saying that this particular law names neither: it creates the prohibition and the offense. If your matter is coal ash, that is another law with its own guide and a much larger fine; if it is recycling in a housing complex or of electronic equipment, those also have their own guides.

• Believing a contract or municipal ordinance can authorize it: the law says it admits no contrary contracts or ordinances.
• Thinking it applies only to public landfills: it also reaches private ones and similar facilities of any kind.
• Stretching the cruise and aircraft carve-out: it requires regular service, incidental generation and discharge at PR ports.
• Assuming everything arriving to be recycled is outside: it must be recyclable material defined by law or regulation and brought specifically for that.
• Looking in this law for an enforcing agency or complaint procedure: it carries none.
• Reading the fine as a range: the law fixes five thousand dollars.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

  DRNA

  www.drna.pr.gov