General News

A daily public system of waste separation and recycling is in its seventh year of operation in the middle-class neighborhood of Chapalita, on Guadalajara’s west side and, by most accounts, is working well. 

Many area municipalities, including Guadalajara proper and adjoining Zapopan, have tried — and then sputtered or failed — in undertaking systems of curbside pickup of separated garbage. Poor implementation and low citizen cooperation are the chief problems, according to Eduardo Gomez, the coordinator of Colonia Chapalita’s Ecological and Environmental Department. 

“A principal problem is getting the word out and getting people accustomed to the idea,” he said, underscoring that, “recycling and separation begin in the home.”

Gomez understands the difficulties of getting such projects under way, because he worked at Guadalajara City Hall in 2008, when the incumbent government undertook a curbside separation effort after state legislators passed a law mandating garbage separation. 

The results in Guadalajara were not auspicious. “People didn’t separate their garbage,” he said. “So the city tried not picking it up if it wasn’t separated. However, after a few days, the streets were so dirty, they gave in and picked up whatever people put out.”

At that time, Gomez was a resident of Colonia Chapalita. Its neighborhood group, Residentes de Chapalita, which had been promoting environmental efforts since it was founded as the “Ciudad Jardin” (“Garden City”) in the early 1940s, invited him to work for them and oversee the program they were setting up.

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So in the same year, 2008, Colonia Chapalita, by way of Gomez and a residents group that has 70 employees and functions much like a city hall, revved up a separation and recycling program, eventually getting six of their own garbage trucks and establishing a pickup schedule that is basically still in existence today. 

The colonia began charging homes and businesses a fee — 250 pesos a month, for a small house, Gomez said — which includes services such as garbage collection, water, park maintenance, animal control, street lights and more. Buoyed by the fact that Chapalita has residents with a high level of education, the ecological effort has been successful, says Gomez. Plus, the colonia applies a little clout. 

“The people on the trucks check the trash and if it’s not the correct type for that day, they leave it.

“But generally people cooperate,” he added. “We’ve passed out flyers several times, we had a magazine and on our website we list the types of trash and days they should be put out.”

Not all residents and businesses are on board, however. 

“It doesn’t work,” stated a longtime Chapalita resident, saying that the trucks mix all types of garbage together and that many people don’t separate because they are unaware of the separation protocol and which days to put out “orgánicos/sanitarios” versus “inorgánicos.” To ensure that workers remove the unseparated garbage, tipping is necessary, the resident said, adding that nobody in her family saw any brochures or visited the colonia’s webpage. (A check of the Web page, www.chapalita.mx, revealed that at that point in time, it did not have particulars about trash separation.)

However, resident Sven Clyde, who said he received a brochure about the program in May, separates his garbage diligently and puts it out the night before. 

“I cut a square of paper and color it with crayons in the correct colors [green, orange and blue] and then write in text what kind of garbage it is. Then I tape the paper to the bag with transparent tape.

“I see that the trucks actually do not collect general garbage on the days organic or plastic/glass garbage is collected and they do carry away my bags with the ‘scheduled’ garbage for that particular day.” 

Clyde added that he doesn’t think the strategy of tipping trash collectors is sound. 

“Actually that’s the reason the program sometimes doesn’t work. Until people stop finding it easier to tip the garbage guys than to separate their stuff and follow the schedule, it won’t work the way it is meant to.”

Gian Carlo Ferrari, owner of the Italian restaurant Greta in Chapalita, said that he likes the work of Residentes de Chapalita, especially in park maintenance, dog control and water supply, but for trash he hires a private collection service. 

“They always arrive very early, at 7:30 a.m., and their work is very good,” he said.

Gomez admits there are glitches in Chapalita’s program. For example, the neighborhood gave up requiring that trash be put in green, orange or blue bags. Also, he said, “We are now taking down colored bins that we put around the colonia for people to put separated trash. They didn’t work. Cars were driving up and dumping all kinds of stuff in them.”

Bruce Newby, who has observed the Chapalita separation program during frequent visits to the office of the American Society (Amsoc), is sanguine about it.

“Chapalita is definitely doing a better job than Guadalajara,” he said, explaining that he and his wife, Carmen, live in Guadalajara and can compare the two efforts.

“The housekeeper at the clubhouse does the separation since Amsoc got a flyer about it a couple years ago,” Newby said. “She puts the separated trash out on the correct days. I have no idea if the colonia actually carries the separation process further.”

Gomez says they do, in a centro de acopio (separation and recycling center). And he insists that Chapalita is the best neighborhood in Guadalajara and that this distinction is largely due to his department’s efforts. 

“Here, we do everything Guadalajara City Hall does, except police work. And most of what we do is basically environmental service,” he said.

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A 44-year-old woman from Tlajomulco has become the first fatality from dengue fever in Jalisco in 2015. The woman was diabetic and received treatment at an IMSS clinic in the municipality, state health authorities said.  

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