Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the municipality that generates the most garbage in Quintana Roo

Reports from the state Secretariat of Ecology and Environment (Sema) indicate that during 2021, the inhabitants of the 11 municipalities of Quintana Roo generated 49.8 tons of garbage more than in 2018.

(QUINTANA ROO – SEMA).- Garbage generation of urban solid waste in Quintana Roo increased by 4.9% in the last four years, going from 1,004,872.44 tons in 2018, to 1,054,755.10 tons in 2021.

The municipality with the highest percentage increase in the generation of urban solid waste was Felipe Carrillo Puerto, followed by Solidaridad, Othón P. Blanco, Cozumel, Tulum, José María Morelos and Lázaro Cárdenas.

Then, Benito Juárez, Bacalar and Puerto Morelos, as well as Isla Mujeres, the latter, with the lowest percentage in the increase of garbage of the 11 municipalities.

During the first days of February, the Government Board of the Municipal Association for the Environment of the South (Amusur), formed a working group with the municipalities of Othón P. Blanco, Bacalar, Felipe Carrillo Puerto and José María Morelos, in order to coordinate a regional Waste Management project in the south of the state.

These four municipalities generated 198,749.8 tons of urban solid waste last year, that is, 19% of the total accumulated tons in 2021 in the 11 municipalities of the entity.

According to the agency, priority is given to strengthening the comprehensive management of waste in the south-central zone of Quintana Roo, with selective collection, sanitation of final disposal sites and construction of transfer stations for integration into a waste recovery project.

Alondra Martínez Flores, general director of Amusur, considered that in order to consolidate the project, the collaboration of the municipalities is required, for which the Amusur working group jointly coordinates the construction of the regional Waste Management project for four municipalities.

Amusur is made up of the four municipalities in the south of the state, and its objective is to jointly implement strategies and actions that lead to sustainability and comprehensive management of the territory.

On the subject, Elvira Carvajal Hinojosa, general director of the Institute of Environmental Impact and Risk of the Sema, said that one of the important issues is to generate agreements and inspection visits with the municipal administrations to identify the problems they have in the management of the resources.

Lack of economic resources to solve the garbage problem

However, she recognized that a large part has to do with the lack of economic resources, human resources, as well as the non-compliance of the conditions by concessionaires for waste management.

That is why it is necessary to seek sources of financing and work in coordination not only with the municipalities, but also with the Federation, and several meetings have been held with officials from the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) to address the issue of the limited resources and capacities that municipalities have.

Another issue is the education and dissemination of good practices for the management of urban solid waste both among citizens and in businesses, mainly the hotel sector, in order to generate the least amount of single-use plastics.

What is intended is to stop burying waste and take advantage of it, the separation and recycling of inorganic type waste is promoted, and those that are not likely to be reused, it is intended to put them into a thermal recovery procedure where what is done is generate electricity from inorganic waste, which also brings the possibility of generating new companies and new jobs.

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