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In Mexico, the majority of waste that is not collected, mainly plastic, ends up on the coast. Debris that is carried adrift by ocean currents until it accumulates on the shores, that later returns out to sea by the waves or that lies losing color tangled in the roots of mangroves, in ecosystems that end up becoming improvised garbage dumps.
According to youn report from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), the situation of high plastic pollution on the coasts has reached critical levels, with the States of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas and Veracruz leading the way. “It is very difficult to quantify how much garbage ends up in nature. But it is estimated that every minute the equivalent of two trucks full of plastic garbage“They are emptied into the ocean,” says Nick Leopold, director of Plastic-Free Oceans at Oceana, a marine conservation organization. “The materials travel from cities by rivers, or through the air, and have a very strong impact on ecosystems,” the person in charge clarifies. of a recently launched campaign to regulate the use of unnecessary plastics in the capital.
In Mexico, where less than 6% of plastic is recycled, the absence of measures for its residual management is one of the main sources of pollution. A problem that is increasing in rural municipalities far from urban centers that lack public service for garbage collection. Given the lack of efficient government policies to address this serious challenge, private initiatives and civil society organizations dedicate funds so that plastic garbage—which kills more than a million marine species a year—does not end up in the oceans. It is the case of Night Community, a network of alliances originated on the coast of Oaxaca to promote recycling and foster the cycle of the circular economy. This project, promoted by Femsa, an association belonging to Coca-Cola, seeks to strengthen the recycling chain in some points of the Mexican Pacific and minimize marine pollution.
To this end, recyclable waste collection sites were installed on some beaches in Puerto Escondido, one of the most visited coastal tourist destinations. “PET or hard plastic bottles such as liquid detergents and shampoo, polypropylene bottles; aluminum cans, paper and cardboard, among other materials that the community can take and recycle,” explains Iberia Rodríguez, a member of the Nit Community and one of the main promoters of the initiative. As the activist explains, “through the participation of residents, the Government, organizations, businesses and other key tourism actors, this alliance aims to prevent waste from collapsing ecosystems.”
According to studies on the environmental impact of plastic pollution, the most common waste that can be found in nature are plates, disposable cups, as well as bags and bottles. Plastics that make up 90% of the total garbage on some beaches. But, this is just an estimate. According to Semarnat, the information that exists on waste management is incomplete due to the lack of monitoring of plastic flows in collection centers, which constitute the most probable end-of-life scenario for this waste in Mexico.
A business that sustains itself in the informal economy
Although collection centers are responsible for the majority of material recovery, practically all of them operate outside of regulation. It is estimated that only 2% of the more than 2,200 in the country are completely controlled. The rest is supported by the informal economy. They are garbage dumps like the Pedro Mixtepec municipal landfill, where a dozen day laborers go every day to earn a living.
In this open-air landfill, just over 10 kilometers from the most touristic beaches where the Nit Community and Femsa develop their recycling project, families of scavengers try to rescue materials that still have a second life. “What we collect the most is PET and hard plastic that we take from appliances, washing machines, ovens,” says Pablo López as he walks through the garbage leaning on a cane. A flock of buzzards is on the prowl. Originally from Los Nanches, a town in the municipality where the landfill is expanding, this 64-year-old Oaxacan has spent more than two-thirds of his life dedicated to recycling, a business that generates billions of dollars annually on a global scale. However, the high profits achieved by the plastic business in the market generally do not impact the actors that make up the supply chains of the recoverable material at the local level.
For workers like Santos, collecting plastic to sell is becoming less and less profitable. “The problem is that its price dropped a lot. If a kilo was previously at seven pesos (0.41 dollars), now they buy them for two (0.12). We sell it very cheap,” says Juana López, who at 61 years old has been collecting garbage for two decades. “We started very early, we arrived at seven in the morning and left at five. With lots of sun or rain and through the plague, we are always here. But it doesn't give us enough to live on. Between my husband and I we can collect about 3,000 pesos ($175) a month,” says the woman.
The challenge: stopping plastic production
Demand for packaging materials and the rise of e-commerce caused the PET market to skyrocket during the pandemic. But the industry's growing profits are not reflected in the pockets of garbage collectors, an increasingly precarious job on the Oaxacan coast that exposes their health to dangers. Workers breathe contaminated air and are exposed to sticks or cuts from needles and other sharp instruments. “We work with our bare hands and we have to be careful not to hurt ourselves,” says the scavenger who supports the entire family by selling materials whose value constantly fluctuates. “The price of plastic goes up or down every two or three months. That's why we prefer to sell metal or aluminum, which gives us much more money,” says López, moving through the mountains of waste.
“The virgin material of plastic is oil, which depends on the world price and is always changing,” says Leopold. The Oceana expert believes that, in the current context, the messages of recycling and the circular economy are not enough as long as new packaging made of this material continues to be produced.
The figures it gives Petstar's annual report, the largest PET recycling infrastructure in the world, which has Coca-Cola among its shareholders, point out that in 2022 they collected almost 101,000 tons in Mexico, but only produced 53,000 tons of recycled plastic. “This means that there is a loss of material of almost 50%, which forces us to continue extracting oil in order to generate material that meets the demand,” laments Leopold.
According to UN, most packaging is not designed to be reused. And they end up becoming waste that, as it loses value for those in charge of collecting it, ends up burned in the open or dumped directly into rivers, ravines and other natural ecosystems such as the sea. While Coca-Cola has announced the creation of 100% recyclable packaging by 2030, the international consensus It aims directly at the direct elimination of unnecessary plastics. And environmental organizations advocate stopping the production of this material and the creation of reusable packaging, packaging and bottling alternatives to combat plastic pollution.
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