Managing garbage is an expensive business for the municipality of Chapala. City hall ecology chief Moctezuma Medina Corona says it costs the government about 17,000 pesos to collect and dispose of 60 tons of refuse – an average of 1.3 kilograms per person –each and every day.
Obviously, anything that can be done to cut down this high-price bill frees up funds for other essential government expenses, such as road and vehicle maintenance.
Recycling is a recent and growing part of the regional economy. It might surprise you to learn that Jalisco has more than 200 general and specialised recycling businesses, most of them in and around Guadalajara. While some handle cardboard, paper, glass, metals, scrap electronics and other materials, almost half deal in plastics.
So what happens to that soft drink bottle or margarine tub tossed into recycling bin? Though its path requires several steps, take comfort in knowing it will eventually return to shops as a new product, and even put a little money into local pockets along the way. Not much, but in this economy, every bit counts.
Separating any type of reusable plastic container from household rubbish is the first critical step, representing your contribution to the process. It’s an important one. Minimizing contact with messy leftover foods and other wastes vastly simplifies the work of garbage collectors who sort through trash bags to retrieve discarded plastic, aluminium and cardboard that can be traded in for cash, no matter how small the amount.
You many have noticed the giant fibre sacks-called jumbos-hanging from the back of local garbage trucks. They are supplied by Recicladora de la Ribera de Chapala (RCC), a private recycling enterprise located on the highway in Riberas del Pilar. Once the garbage men fill up the jumbos, they drop them off at RCC and collect payment for the contents. The going rate for each kind of material fluctuates, running about two to five pesos per kilogram.
RCC staffers sort the plastics according to standard types, usually identified on the bottom of each item by a small triangle marked with a number from one to seven. For example, transparent water and soft drink bottles made of Polyethylene Terephthalate are classified as #1. Milk jugs, shampoo bottles, cleaning products and food containers made from Polyethylene Terephthalate are labelled #2. Objects made from Polypropylene are marked #5. These are the materials that have a market value for recycling.
The reusable plastics are put through a mechanical grinder to be turned into a compact flake form. Dramatically reduced to a fraction of its original volume, the flake plastic is bagged for sale to a Guadalajara processing company that melts the product and transforms it into plastic pellets or noodles used in the manufacture of new goods.
Recycling is a business that pays in stages. A lot of throwaway stuff has a monetary value that accumulates as it moves along the reconversion chain. We all have a part to play in the process. It’s something to keep in mind the next time you make the smart decision to separate useful recyclables from all the rest of the garbage that is uselessly mounting up in landfills day by day.
Peter Burpee is a retired Canadian professor and committed advocate of recycling who resides at lakeside during the winter months.