Costa Rica's path to a circular economy

The factsheet  on Costa Rica's path to a circular economy summarises interviews with stakeholders including EU Delegation, the national government, the private sector and civil society. It provides analysis of the vision and motivation of stakeholders in Costa Rica in the circular economy transition process, the main challenges faced and the milestones achieved. Lessons learnt and success factors were gathered to enable a better understanding of the “recipes” for replication.

Costa Rica shows its commitment to sustainable development through solid environmental policies and collaborative and participatory processes with the different actors, becoming a leading country in Latin America in achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda and the adoption of sustainable behaviours. Concern over the impact on the environment of single-use plastics in Costa Rica led to the establishment of the National Strategy to replace single-use plastics with renewable and compostable alternatives 2017-2021, presented in 2017 as a collective and voluntary action of the public sector (both the central government and the municipalities), the private sector, and civil society to promote the replacement of single-use plastic with renewable and compostable options.

In 2023, Costa Rica launched a Circular Economy Strategy, which seeks to link all existing and planned sectoral initiatives, programmes and policies related to circular economy, with the ambition to place the country in a leading position in Latin America as regards the circular economy, innovation and sustainability. The strategy promotes a sustainable economic development model as a driver of inclusive territorial transformation. Based on a circular and resilient productive system, the strategy is supported by a network of expert innovation centres at the intersection of productive chains and circular businesses. To learn more about the transition process in Costa Rica, download the factsheet. 

In the recent years, Latin America and the Caribbean has been very active in the promotion of circular economy. Reason enough to document the national transition processes. The factsheet is a product of collaboration of DG International partnerhsips, the SWITCH to Green Facility with the Circular Economy Coalition for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Coalition responds to the great interest and initiatives on circular economy. In the last few years, the LAC region has been very active in the promotion of circular economy.

More factsheets are available for Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador and Colombia.