MEXICO CITY
THE 2ND LARGEST WASTE PRODUCER IN THE WORLD.
Every day 13,000 tons of garbage are dumped in Mexico City, this means that each one of us generatesmore than a kilo of solid waste per day,mainly organic and plastics. The problem is not only the excessive generation of waste, but the city does not have any effective strategy to manage it, so the landfills continue to grow, burning and poisoning our air, soil, water and food.
WE WASTE 34% OF FOOD
According to official data, urban solid waste in Mexico City is made up mostly of organic matter from the kitchen and garden. Most of it is disposed of with other waste in landfills or incinerators. Meanwhile, more than a third of all food produced in Mexico is wasted as a result of overproduction and inefficient distribution.
To make matters worse, there is a lot of misinformation about how to manage and separate organic waste, which means that very little is treated and composted. As a result, there is a large amount of missorted waste, underutilized waste, and most damagingly, excessive waste.
WE RECYCLE ONLY 6% OF PLASTIC WASTE.
Every year 12 MILLION TONS of plastic waste are produced in Mexico City, of which only 6.07% is recycled. For its part, 48% of the plastic manufactured is used for single-use plastic products. To try to curb the use of single-use plastics, the Mexico City government has begun to implement regulations on plastic bags and disposable products, and to promote biodegradable plastics.
Unfortunately these efforts are met with many challenges. There is a lack of long-term vision in governance, which means that there is not enough time to develop infrastructure to recycle all the waste that is produced. Most local governments are under considerable financial and political constraints, and are struggling to create new programs to address the problem of plastic waste.
