Waste management procedures are unified in the Single Investment Window

The Executive Branch repealed the regulation governing the digital waste process on the SINIGIR platform and unified all integrated waste management procedures within the Single Investment Window (VUI). This is mandated by Executive Decree No. 45895-S, signed by the President of the Republic, Laura Fernández Delgado, and the Minister of Health, Dr. Alexander Sánchez Cabo, and published in La Gaceta — Official Gazette No. 174 on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.

The regulation repeals Executive Decree No. 41525-S of December 4, 2018, which established the “Regulation for the Digital Process of Registrations and Authorizations of the Ministry of Health in Integrated Waste Management on the SINIGIR Platform.” The new decree, issued in San José on June 22, 2026, takes effect upon its publication in the Official Gazette.

Regulatory Framework and Background

The measure is supported by Law No. 8839 of June 24, 2010, the “Integrated Waste Management Law,” which assigns the Ministry of Health leadership in the matter and the establishment of binding requirements and authorizations for regulated actors. The Executive argues that, since the issuance of decree 41525-S, the country has advanced in digitalization and simplification through national technological interoperability platforms.

The VUI, led by the Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER) with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce as the lead agency for regulatory improvement, constitutes a national project that integrates the procedures required for business operations. According to the decree, maintaining the SINIGIR regulation would create technological duplication, regulatory dispersion, and unnecessary burdens for both the administered parties and the Administration itself.

Procedures Transferring to the VUI

The Ministry of Health will carry out the necessary administrative, operational, and management updates so that the procedures provided for in the revoked decree continue to be managed exclusively through the VUI platform. Among the migrating procedures are:

• The registration of waste managers.
• The integrated waste management report established in Article 37 of Law No. 8839 and its regulation.
• The registration of compliance units, regulated by Executive Decree No. 38272-S of January 7, 2014, “Regulation for the Declaration of Special Handling Waste.”

Approval Procedure

The decree was submitted for public consultation between March 23 and April 7 for citizens and interested sectors on the Ministry of Health website, with no observations received from the administered parties. Additionally, the Cost-Benefit Evaluation Form was processed in Section I of the Prior Control of Regulatory Improvement, the result of which was negative, as the proposal contained no additional procedures or requirements.

The repeal is based on articles 154 and 155 of the General Law of Public Administration, which empower the Administration to review, modify, or revoke its own normative acts when reasons of legality, opportunity, or convenience justify it, without infringing upon legitimately acquired rights.

Impact for management companies

The unification eliminates the coexistence of two parallel platforms and concentrates the environmental and health procedures that waste management companies must comply with into a single channel. For the private sector, this translates into a lower regulatory burden, a single management point, and greater institutional efficiency, in line with national guidelines for simplification and regulatory improvement.

With this reform, Costa Rica consolidates the VUI as the reference single window for business operations, integrating the procedures under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health into a unified and more efficient national mechanism.

Source: La Gaceta — Official Gazette, No. 174, Wednesday, September 16, 2026, pgs. 5-6 (official reference: Executive Decree No. 45895-S, IN202601118184).