Estudio de los residuos sólidos en Colombia

In Colombia, the concept of solid waste presents significant terminological deficiencies, which constitutes a stumbling block to advance in management aimed at significantly increasing utilization. Thus, to the extent that there is no clarity regarding the purpose of management, the actions carried out, focused on utilization, will not achieve the proposed results.

The situation described is due to the fact that in the country the legal evolution of the concept has been developed based on the provision of the cleaning service, attending to the interest of eliminating what is generated by users with a health rather than an environmental vision. Thus, the concepts adopted by the standards have not been sufficient to satisfy a national reality of growing and permanently changing generation of solid waste flows (increasingly more complex) as a result of advances in science and technology. Therefore, the role of the legislator is decisive in the construction of a clear and unequivocal concept of solid waste generated in a specific economic, social and cultural context, which leads to improving its management and encourages the development of new markets aimed at its valorization. and use.

While analyzing the legal and environmental problems of solid waste, this text proposes a new concept of the same in order to make its use viable as a possible solution to the challenges posed by the provision of public sanitation services within the framework of comprehensive solid waste management.