Much of this rainy season’s flood damage has been attributed to garbage in the rivers, and clogged storm water drains are a chronic problem around the metropolitan area. The worst factor affecting urban drainage is the theft of steel gratings for sale as scrap with resulting intake into the sewers of floating garbage.

A Colombian company is marketing plastic gratings that have no scrap value, made of recycled polypropylene. Grupo Linasa has sold to several Costa Rican municipalities.

Manhole covers are also often stolen, resulting in a serious hazard to drivers, especially when the open hole is hidden by water. The company sells plastic manhole covers too.

In Tibás, a municipality on the north side of San Jose, there are about 1,500 grates missing, according to Maikol Madrigal of the city’s street maintenance department. In some parts of the municipality, a replacement grate is carried off in a few days. Tibás includes the famous León XIII slum.

Scrap steel is currently selling at junkyards for 60 colons (about 12 cents) per kilo or $120 per metric ton. At that price, a high quality steel grate is worth something less than a dollar from unscrupulous junkyard owners. There are usually middlemen with transport involved so the actual thief would get less.

International steel scrap prices are high again after the world economic crisis in 2008 took Chinese buyers out of the market. Prices are almost back to pre-recession levels at about $250 per ton.

The price of a dose of crack in Costa Rica is about a dollar.

About 100 of Linasa’s plastic grates have been installed around Tibás, but the municipality does not intend to purchase more as they have not withstood the abuse heaped upon them. “Unfortunately, people here in Tibás have the bad habit of parking trucks on the sidewalk,” and generally mistreating infrastructure, Madrigal said. The grates have a stated capacity of 4 to 5 tons; “that’s the first truck, but the second, the third, the fourth . . . . ” The plastic grates are better suited for residential areas, he added.

Tibás’ engineers have resorted to manufacturing their own steel gratings, anchored with chains and loops of rebar to avoid pilfering.

The plastic products are somewhat more expensive than steel, but in addition to their unattractiveness to thieves, they are marketed as “ecological.” Salesperson Raquel Jiménez said they are “100 percent recycled,” the source of the plastic being “trash.”

Research has shown that polypropylene is a minuscule part of the domestic waste stream in Costa Rica, and Colombia with a similar level of economic development has similar garbage composition. The main use of polypropylene is margarine tubs, and most margarine in Costa Rica is sold in cubes.

Twine used in the banana industry is the biggest source of polypropylene garbage in Costa Rica. Industrial residues rather than “post-consumer” recycling is a possible source, or plastic can be imported from recycling operations in the U.S. Ms. Jiménez did not respond to repeated requests for details on the origin of the plastic used for the grates.

Gunmen blast away at pair
in San Pedro apartment unit


Gunmen wounded a Dominican couple Tuesday night in their San Pedro living quarters.

A reader reported hearing shooting at a neighbor's quarters in Apartamentos William in Barrio Roosevelt, some 300 meters south and 100 meters west of the Banco Nacional on Avenida Central there.

Two persons were removed on stretchers and taken to Hospital Calderón Guardia.

The shooting happened shortly before 10 p.m. The male member of the couple was reported in what amounts to critical condition. He suffered up to six bullet wounds. The woman suffered at least four and was hurt less seriously.

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