Los Cabos City Council recently approved the purchase of 15 new garbage trucks at a total cost of nearly $5 million dollars USD. This much-needed and perhaps long-overdue decision is part of the city’s ongoing efforts to improve waste management and keep our streets cleaner than they have been. The new trucks, of course, will lead to the employment of drivers and the crew of trash haulers who will load them. The cost breakdown is an average price per truck at $330,000 USD.
The trucks will fill an obvious need as the city's population has increased from 70,000 inhabitants in 2010 to 310,000.
Mexico City ranks as the second biggest producer of garbage behind New York City, generating 20,000 tons of garbage every day, enough to fill the Azteca Stadium, the largest in the country, every single week. Half of this waste is produced at homes and almost 90% ends up in landfills, severely impacting the health of the people and the environment. Landfills emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, accounting for 10% of global emissions. Waste collection is a system that emits a lot of greenhouse gases by itself:
The adage of "If you do not learn from history, you will be doomed to repeat it," applies to our Los Cabos city council members and our mayor who need to acknowledge the garbage situation and plan ahead so the area's meteoric population rise does not overwhelm the city’s landfill capacity. And be aware, that there is a difference between a dump and a landfill. In the United States, landfills have liners to prevent toxins from leaching into the soil and reaching the aquifer, and they have soil put on them daily to help with the smell. Open dumps are no longer legal in the United States. They have been deemed an environmental hazard.
While tourists may not ever see it, locals do burn trash which pollutes the area with poison. The garbage seen on the side of some roads seems to be getting worse, so the purchase of these trucks could not have come at a better time. And it’s more than just an eyesore. Trash gets into waterways and our soil. Wild and domesticated dogs and other animals eat it.
"We are tossing valuable materials into the trash, and there is part of the problem. The goal is to recycle at least 60 percent of our waste. We must establish sanitary landfills that meet health and safety regulations. You can't just improvise a landfill site. We are going to have a problem with garbage for a long time. If we take action now, it need not get any worse, but we need a long-term strategy," said Iván Restrepo, head of the Ecology and Development Centre of Mexico City. Additionally, the Los Cabos City Council has greenlighted a study to determine how to finance the acquisition of 80 more garbage trucks to address the increasing demand for efficient waste collection services across this great city.
