Current State of Waste Management in Mexico City >>>

Despite generating over 22 million tonnes of food waste annually, Mexico continues to face significant challenges in implementing a cohesive and effective national strategy to address the issue.

In July 2021 the new “Transfer Station and Sorting Plant Azcapotzalco” was inaugurated in Mexico City, which annually saves around $88,976,000 MXN (3,742,375 Euros) through the sale of recyclables, avoidance of transport, and reduction of final disposal.

Mexico City is the third most populated agglomeration in the world. Amongst megacities, Mexico City occupies second place on most waste generation, after the New York region. The city’s waste generation can be linked to the high consumption and use of resources, consequence of the rapid pace of life.

This Outlook can help decision-makers understand the direction in which we are heading and help to assess which policies can support a more circular economy. The OECD stands ready to assist governments in making this transition by designing, developing and delivering better resource efficiency policies for better lives.

Mexico is at the beginning of the clean and renewable energy race. The Energy Reforms were instituted only in 2014 when the new regulatory governmental entities began their work. Nonetheless, they are already working in benefit of new energy companies. There is indeed a very strong basis for a new order and reform, but there are still some areas that have only just begun to get attention.

Considering the worldwide number of installations as well as their capacity, the most dominating treatment method for waste is incineration. Currently, 225 million tons of waste are treated in 2,200 facilities.

This presentation will provide an overview of integrated solid waste management in North America. It will then focus extensively on the current state of solid waste management, material recovery, waste to energy (WTE). It will provide insight on the current practices in place and the results achieved in the material and energy recovery. Further it will discuss the current trends followed by perception as to what lies ahead, the expectations and the opportunities.

The GICON® Process, a two-phase, two-stage high solids anaerobic digestion process, has proven highly suitable for the processing of structurally-complex and often impurityladen feedstocks such as organic wastes of municipal or commercial origin for the Generation of biogas. Recently, this process was integrated into an existing mechanical and biological waste treatment facility in Erfurt, Germany, by modifying intensive composting boxes to produce percolate for fermentation in a GICON® Process fixed-bed methane digester. The application of the GICON Process enabled the exploitation of an energy source (the organic fraction of the feedstock) and the reduction of the residence time for the material in the composting boxes. GICON’s experiences with the development and realization of this project, as well as observations on the performance of the plant will be discussed.

Waste generation in Mexico is growing at 3.3% per year, as the economy is expanding and population is increasing. Mexico City, the country’s capital, is one of the largest megalopolis in the world with a population of over 20 million.

Economic development and rapid growth of urban population have resulted in the generation of enormous quantities of municipal solid waste (MSW) that cannot, any longer, be disposed of in the makeshift landfills of yesteryear. This has led the E.U., U.S. and other developed nations to adopt the so-called hierarchy of waste management that gives priority to waste reduction, recycling, composting and waste-to-energy (WTE) over landfilling. Sanitary landfills protect surface and groundwater and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere so they are preferable to non-regulated landfills. However, it has been estimated that only twenty percent of the global landfills are sanitary.

Separate collection of organics is a key part of schemes to achieve highest rates of recovery of materials. Also, it allows recovery of clean organic resources, which are then suitable for application onto farmlands, thereby causing multiple beneficial effects as - locking C in soils (which helps tackling climate change) - fighting desertification and erosion - reducing use of mineral fertilisers (and eutrophication that may occur in sensitive areas and wetlands) - preventing pathogens thanks to the suppressive power (which reduces use of pesticides), etc.

Cement is by far the most widely used man-made material. The global cement industry produces about 3.3 billion tonnes of cement annually. Cement production is energy intensive, with about 200 kg of coal used per tonne of cement.

The Durban climate conference decided to establish a new market-based mechanism (NMM) that is to cover broad segments of countries’ economies. This article aims to explore the essential prerequisites for the implementation of an NMM. In addition to a theoretical discussion it considers the cases of China and Mexico. The article finds that the challenges in establishing market mechanisms that cover a broad segment of the economy are formidable and most developing countries have serious capacity constraints. Lead times can be expected to be at least 3–5 years. To move the process forward, it may be useful to consider promoting pilot activities similar to the Activities Implemented Jointly pilot phase that preceded the introduction of the flexible Kyoto mechanisms and the demonstration activities for Reducing Emissions from Avoided Deforestation and Forest Degradation.

For a finished compost to be safe for market, it should have reached the necessary sanitation conditions. This means thatthe number of known pathogenic microorganisms in compost should comply with the levels specified in the nationaland provincial guidelines. North American guidelines, such as those published by the USEPA in the United States andthe CCME in Canada, specify the levels of some pathogenic and indicator microorganisms as <3 MPN·4 g-1 dry solidsfor Salmonella, <1000 MPN·g-1 dry solids for fecal coliforms and < 1 PFU·4 g-1 dry solids for enteric viruses. Further Author: K. Wichuk - Civil & Environmental Engineering

This paper will consider the distributional impact of climate change on developed and developing countries and, in particular, flag the potential for climate change policies to negate development objectives for the poorest countries. Developing countries, such as China, India, Brazil and Mexico, are essential participants to the success of any global campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is in this context that future policies involving both mitigation and adaptive strategies must incorporate measures to assist with alleviating poverty and thus enhance the ability of developing countries address broader sustainability issues. The article concludes with some suggestions for managing the risks through institutional reform.

Technical Cooperation in environmental engineering between the Federal Government of Mexico and the Federal Government of Germany has been going on for more than fifteen years. One of the current assistance projects is a four year program, called “Environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources”. This program contains a component, called “Environmental information system and monitoring”. It is managed by a working group that consists of members of the Mexican Ministry for the Environment (SEMARNAT, see abbreviations) and of local and international experts.