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Mexico City Faces Trash Crisis

More than 50 trash collection units wait up to five hours to be received at the transfer center located at Eje 3 and la Viga, which aggravates solid waste collection and generated a conflict with the state of Mexico.

Truck wait up to five in front of the transfer center Cuauhtémoc Borough, due to trash saturation. Photo: CAPITAL MEDIA/ Jesús Velázquez.

This Thursday the State of Mexico forbade entry to collection centers to trucks bringing trash from Mexico City.

Solid waste from the capital will be taken to 2 selection plants before being directed to the sanitary landfill “La Perseverancia”, located in Cuautla, Morelos.

Manuel Edmundo Hernandez, chief of transference in Mexico City’s Cuauhtémoc borough, said the that a truck loaded with trash could take up to eight hours to get to Cuautla and back.

“We have been waiting for two hours for a load, a load comes and then we wait another two hours, two or three can arrive, we don’t know, depends on when they leave the landfill.”

He added that the excess of trash had led to the closing of the plants.

“The situation right now is that the plants are saturated, there is too much trash.”
Manuel Edmundo Hernández. Cuauhtémoc borough Chief of Transference. 

He pointed out that the transfer center receives 80 tons of trash daily and believes they are lagging behind by over 2 thousand tons of trash.

“The situation is such that we have the instruction here in urban services to hold out here for 24 hours.”

The official concluded that due to the crisis, “we will be up all night, the service is getting done slowly but its getting done.”

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