2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 203 - Powers and Faculties of the Municipal Government (§§ 4051 — 4058) › § 4055 - Faculties—Waste management programs and systems

The municipality may regulate the solid waste collection management in harmony with the environmental public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and provide through ordinance the manner in which solid waste management shall be conducted, and impose penalties for violations of the norms thus adopted. It may also establish, maintain and operate by itself or by contracting with any other bona fide natural or juridical person, waste management and general public sanitation programs and services.
(a) Definitions.— For the purposes of this section and § 4056 of this title, the following terms and phrases shall have the meaning indicated below:
(1) Obligation.— Shall mean any bond or note, payment agreed upon under a service or lease contract or instrument, debt, fee, or obligation of a similar nature of the municipality.
(2) Solid waste disposal service.— Shall mean the disposal of solid waste by any public or private entity, including any municipality or the Solid Waste Authority, by the operation of plants or installations for the disposal of such waste.
(3) Solid waste management facilities.— Shall mean and include land, improvements, structures, equipment, machinery, vehicles, or any other property used by any public or private entity authorized by the Environmental Quality Board or the Solid Waste Authority for the management of solid waste. This term includes, but is not limited to sanitary landfills, transport stations, processing facilities, compost plants and materials recovery facilities.
(4) Solid waste management.— Shall mean the administration and systematic control of all activities associated with solid waste, which include but are not limited to: generation, storage, separation at the source, collection, transport, transfer, processing, recovery and final disposal.
(b) Waste management fees.— The municipalities are hereby authorized to impose, through municipal ordinance, a fee for solid waste management in residential sectors. Prior to the approval of any ordinance to such ends, the municipality shall notify and hold public hearings at a place and time that is accessible to the community. The Board of Directors of the Municipal Revenues Collection Center shall establish the minimum margins of fees that apply for the management of solid waste in residential sectors.
Once the Board of Directors of the Municipal Revenues Collection Center approves the minimum margin for the applicable fees, all the municipalities shall adopt such margins except those that have fees that are higher than those established.
The municipalities may also fix fees for solid waste management in industrial, commercial and government sectors through an ordinance to such effects.
The municipalities may contract the bona fide public or private entities that they deem convenient for the billing and collection of fees services.
To such ends, the Electric Power Authority is hereby empowered to render billing and collection services for the collection of solid waste fees, pursuant to the terms and conditions provided by the contract to such effects. The Authority shall itemize in a separate column or item in its bills, the specific amount that corresponds to the municipal solid waste collection services, and the amounts it collects and receives for such concept shall be remitted to the corresponding municipality no later than thirty (30) days following the date the same were billed.
Every municipality shall keep the revenues from the fees for solid waste management in a separate account. Such income shall be used solely and exclusively to finance any solid waste management activities, programs, projects and facilities.
(c) The municipalities of Puerto Rico are hereby empowered to declare any abandoned, vacant or fallow lot whose state or appearance threatens or is offensive or harmful to the health and safety of the community, as a public nuisance. Once the lot is declared a public nuisance, the owner shall be bound to clean up the same or perform the work needed to eliminate such condition, within the reasonable term provided therefor, after the notice of the resolution. If the owner fails to clean up the lot, the municipality shall proceed to clean it at his/her expense. The uncollected expenses incurred by the municipality in cleaning up the property or eliminating its detrimental condition, shall constitute a lien on the property which shall be recorded on the Property Registry. Provided, That in those cases in which the municipality has incurred in cleaning expenses on more than two (2) occasions, a penalty of not less than five hundred dollars ($500), nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) shall be imposed for every time the cleaning of the same is ordered. This penalty shall be imposed as follows: the third time the penalty shall be of one thousand dollars ($1,000); the fourth time shall be of three thousand dollars ($3,000); the fifth time shall be of four thousand dollars ($4,000); the sixth and subsequent times, the same shall be of five thousand dollars ($5,000). This penalty shall be imposed in addition to the cost of the cleaning thereof, and if payment is not made, said sum shall be added to the lien on the title of the corresponding lot. The penalties imposed shall be paid to the municipality where the lot is located.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 2.005; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 8; Dec. 30, 1995, No. 260, § 1; Aug. 17, 2002, No. 191, § 1; Sept. 7, 2004, No. 258, § 10.