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Currently, recycling is part of the city's informal economy, carried out by a combination of garbage collectors who separate and sell the goods for their own profit, scavengers who sell materials they find in landfills, nonprofit organizations and companies in the recycling business.
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Citywide compliance with recycling laws is lagging, but some municipalities are educating their young people about the environment and instituting a recycling structure.
 Other Latin American countries are well ahead of Mexico's recycling programs, but the nation has considerable incentives. Those incentives for stronger Mexican environmental policies include the NAFTA treaty, its membership in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its trade relationships with the U.S. and Europe, according to a 2006 report by Maryland-based Raymond Communications.
Despite these incentives, Mexico recycles only about 6 percent of its solid waste, compared to 10 percent in Colombia and approximately 15 percent in Peru, but it has the potential to fairly easily recycle about one-third, the report says.
In Mexico City, the nation's capital and one of the world's biggest population centers, the need for effective waste management is clear. Its only landfill, Bordo Poniente, which has an operating budget of approximately $150 million per year, is likely to be closed in the next year and is now at risk of fracturing its base and leaking contaminants into the soil, according to local news reports. Mexico City has three separation plants, but they are controlled by powerful unions and only yield about 6 percent of the city's total trash as recyclable material. Separation of trash has been mandatory for residences and businesses in Mexico City since October 2004, but the problem is in how to implement the law when many neighborhoods don't have compartmentalized trucks.
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
The Miguel Hidalgo Delegation, one of 16 sections of Mexico City, has taken a novel approach--it took the 2004 solid waste law seriously and began to invest in recycling to reduce trash and keep the area clean. Neighborhood officials are modernizing trucks and educating citizens about trash separation, while leaving potential profits in the hands of collection crews. The delegation now separates its 700 tons of waste per day into about 50 tons of organic material for compost and 650 tons of inorganic material, which is sent to plants for further sorting and recycling.
Since Mexico City made trash separation mandatory by law three years ago, Miguel Hidalgo may well be the only delegation that has taken steps to institutionalize recycling. The delegation has purchased 11 trucks with space for organic and inorganic material, and its education campaigns in schools, businesses and public places like markets have made citizens more compliant in separating their trash.
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