On vacation in Mexico last month, I thought, at first, that our neighbor to the south has a great recycling system. Looking into it a little deeper, I found Mexico has the same problems we are trying to overcome; they just have different solutions.
In most of the United States, we are implementing or improving three-container systems; we have one for trash, another for recyclables, and a third for organics such as food scraps and yard trimmings. In some parts of Mexico, they have just two categories – organic and inorganic.
I saw this two-way separation system in public areas and at private facilities of tourist-heavy Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Cabo San Lucas, and I learned the system has been in place since 1994 in the capital, Mexico City. It looked like public cooperation with the organic/inorganic separation would make recyclables easy to sort from the mixed, dry, inorganic stream, reducing the need for massive public education about what is recyclable and eliminating the need for a third collection route.
Looking into it more deeply, first I visited Puerto Vallarta, which had recently privatized waste management services in urban areas, and, spearheaded by Mayor Luis Munguía, had expanded the availability of these two-way separation systems. I soon found that Mexico has the same basic problems with their system that we do with ours. They, like us, need more public education about what goes in which container, and they, like us, need to convince more people to participate.
I saw these problems first at a “swim with dolphins” attraction in that city. Sensitive to environmental scrutiny, staff at the facility had great explanations for how the tourist dollars they earn fund research on conservation for the brilliant, beautiful, and incredibly cooperative dolphins they train. The staff were quick to point out that taking dolphins from the wild has been banned in Mexico since 2004, so nearly all their dolphins were born at their facility and would not be able to return to the wild.
Consistent with this environmental theme, the site’s organic and inorganic separation system was prominent and beautiful. At multiple locations, dark wooden containers with light wooden lids sported matching metal plates with bright white labels designating the organic and inorganic containers in both Spanish and English. Unfortunately, peering inside the containers, I found the contents of each container almost indistinguishable.
Worse, none of the three employees I asked at the site, a bartender and two waitresses, were able to advise me, in Spanish or English, whether the popsicle stick and paper brochure I wanted to discard were “orgánicos o inorgánicos.” On my way out, I expressed my frustration to a person at the front counter, and she confessed, in English, “Honestly, the custodians just dump both containers in the same place.”
When I asked locals about the separation system in the other cities I visited, I heard the same confusion, and I saw the same mix of contaminated categories when I looked inside containers. Even in a simplified system, public education and motivation is essential.
Here in Ventura County, recycling coordinators working for public agencies and private haulers are focusing outreach efforts on boosting participation and correct separation for organics programs. By weight, food scraps are the most common organics mistakenly placed in garbage cans, but some of the reluctance to participate may be simply because dealing separately food scraps can seem gross to some people. Here are some tips to minimize mess and smells while correctly managing organics in kitchens: Avoid fruit flies and odors by using a pail with a lid or a sealable container to store your food scraps, but empty it regularly to avoid a big odor from escaping each time you lift the lid. Line the inside of your container with a with a plastic bag, newspaper, cardboard, or brown paper bags to keep it clean. Avoid residue and odor by sprinkling empty containers with baking soda, and if residue sticks, rinse the container with soap and warm water. Castile soap can also deter ants.
Some people find these measures are too difficult or unpleasant, so they use a different solution. They store food scraps in a bag in their freezer, emptying the bag into their curbside organics cart only the day before collection.
In addition to the two-way separation program, Mexican cities also used another collection method that has some advantages. In public areas, rather than collecting cans and bottles in containers that look the same as garbage cans, public agencies have erected wire sculptures with large, hollow spaces inside. People open doors in the sculptures and add these recyclables to fill the space. It was hard to tell how often people simply discarded cans and bottles into the nearest receptacle, rather than take a few extra steps and open a sculpture, but at least the open wire seemed to prevent contamination by making it obvious what was intended and what each person was adding. Besides clear signs and public education, this program shows that making actions visible to others can lead to cooperation with recycling programs.
Ventura County Public Works Agency Environmental Resource Analyst David Goldstein may be reached at (805) 658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.