Have you ever wondered what happens to the garbage after the truck takes it away? The destinations of this can be many. It’s true that most human waste ends up in the oceans, but it’s something we can change. The plan is not to end it there, in fact, there is a whole process for waste once it leaves your home, do you know it?
In some countries, the classification of waste is taken into account, as it helps to determine much more easily the path that each waste will take. It could even make the final waste disposal process simpler and more economical.
Urban solid waste is classified into the following 3 groups (3);
· Susceptible to use: which includes materials that can be reused or recycled for a new use such as rubber, cans, paper, PET, polyurethane and glass.
· Organic: which is mainly made up of food waste, garden waste and wood.
· Others: other materials such as cotton, construction material or ceramics.
In 2017, municipal solid waste generated in Mexico reached 53.1 million tons, compared to 258 million tons in the United States and 220.4 million tons in Mexico. (1) Due to the large volume and weight of this waste, adequate management must be carried out to reduce the environmental impact of its use, while seeking to ensure adequate health conditions in cities. (2)
Residue recolection
The first step in the urban solid waste (MSW) value chain is its collection. In Mexico, 83.87% of these are collected and 5% of this collection is done separately (organic and inorganic). This shows us that there is still a good margin of opportunity in our country for either private or government initiatives to increase our efficiency in giving a second use to the products we throw away. (3)
Waste transfer
After being collected, municipal solid waste (MSW) is taken to transfer stations. There are a total of 127 of these stations throughout the country. In 24 stations, waste compaction is carried out, in 37 a separation or selection of recyclable waste is carried out and in 71 only the waste is transferred to vehicles with greater capacity that transport it to its final site. (3)
Waste management
Even though some of our garbage is treated correctly by our government, there is much we can do to improve the situation in our country. First of all, we can investigate whether the municipal garbage trucks that collect our waste end up taking it to one of the 37 transfer stations that separate recyclable waste for later use. To give you an idea of whether your waste could be stored, the 37 transfer stations are distributed as follows;
If your garbage is not recycled, you are not sure what is happening or you simply prefer to take action yourself, what you can do is separate your recyclable waste and take it to collection centers. The more than 1,000 collection centers in Mexico are managed by municipal or state governments and are responsible for receiving recyclable materials that are delivered to them by third parties. (3)
The last step in the garbage value chain is the waste treatment or utilization plants. This is where the materials that we take to the collection centers end up and the part of the garbage that was treated correctly that was collected in some of our homes.
Image: EFE
In these centers, depending on the plant, processes such as separation, crushing and compaction of inorganic waste and processes such as composting and anaerobic digestion (to obtain biofuel) of organic waste are carried out. (3) In an ideal world, all our usable waste would end up in these plants, however, it is up to us to gradually get closer to this reality. And you, are you already contributing your grain of sand?
References
Generation of municipal solid waste worldwide in 2017, by select country (in million metric tons)* (sf). Statist.
Waste. (sf). Government of Mexico.
basic for comprehensive waste management. (2020). Secretary of Environment and.