The Chapala municipal government has launched a pilot project to study the possible benefits of turning over its trash collection service to a private enterprise.
Last week, a fleet of six unmarked garbage trucks owned by a private company was put into service on a trial basis to pick up the slack of the municipality’s Public Sanitation Department.
A cost/efficiency analysis will be carried out at the end of the year to determine whether it would be worthwhile for the local government to cut a long-term deal with the outfit. This would mean the private company taking full charge of all trash pickup and delivery to the waste disposal facility in Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos.
Under such an arrangement the city would be relieved from shouldering the high cost of maintaining, repairing and fueling its own vehicles. Additional savings would come from transferring garbage collection staffers onto the private company’s payroll.