A Study and Factor Identification of Municipal Solid Waste Management in Mexico City

Mexico City generates 12 thousand tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) per day, which places it as one of the cities that produces the most MSW in the world. However, the treatments used in the city are not enough for recycling materials and organics valorization of at least 45% of the MSW, which is the minimum for a medium-high-income city. To put in a global context the deficiency in Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) in Mexico City and evaluate the policies that have been implemented thus far, Wasteaware benchmark Indicators for Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) were used to obtain a desired profile for the comprehensive MSWM in Mexico City. The Wasteaware Benchmark Indicators have been tested in more than 50 cities around the world. The results showed that in Mexico City, certain aspects of governance present the most considerable delay and, at the same time, that there are certain areas of opportunity to improve the efficiency of MSWM in its physical aspects, such as collection systems or treatment services.