The government of Mexico City was to hold one of its 'bartering' or swap markets on 19 October, wherein residents bring in recyclable trash in exchange for foodstuffs including fresh vegetables. The fairs' dates and locations were liable to change, though tending to take place every week or fortnight since 2025. The next one was scheduled for the morning hours, inside the Chapultepec park. The markets are part of the city's bid to boost trash separation and recycling habits in the population, El Sol de México reported on 16 October. Its government wants to halve the amount of trash buried under ground by 2030 as part of a Basura cero or Zero Trash agenda.
The American News Monitor
For the record.
Friday, 17 October 2025
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Mexico City to enforce trash separation in homes
Mexico City will gradually enforce trash separation at source from January 2026, aiming to halve the refuse sent into landfills by 2030, and recover and reuse as much as possible. The city's mayoress, Clara Brugada, said all schools, offices and households would have to divide their trash into organic, recyclables and non-recyclables from 1 January, and the city had two months to prepare people for what she said was "no minor task," the website Animal político reported on 8 October. The city, with a population exceeding 9.2 million people, reportedly generates 8,600 tons of trash daily. This was less than the 12,900 tons reported as produced daily in 2016. Brugada said the city would boost its collecting and recycling budget, with the goal of composting organic trash and turning non-organic materials into final products ranging from fuel to tarmac, acoustic padding and the like. The city has vowed to cut its carbon emissions 35% over an unspecified time. The environmental organization Greenpeace warned on 7 October that government-backed initiatives favoring reuse or recycling of plastic - and often praised as part of a sustainable or circular economy - were often ploys to prevent moves to curb relentless plastic production in line with big-business interests. As was pointed out in 2016, the Mexican capital's problem was not recycling, but the sheer amount of trash the city 'spewed out' every day.
Monday, 13 October 2025
Bogotá grapples with its trash
Bogotá, home to just under eight million people, produces some 7,500 tonnes of trash every day and has broadly failed in recent years to reduce or significantly recycle its refuse. The city government led by the mayor Luis Carlos Galán, estimates every city resident produces a kilogram of trash daily, while one senator, Carlos Eduardo Guevara of MIRA, a "Christian" party, has said the city produced enough trash every year to fill the Campín soccer stadium 18 times, according to the website Confidencial noticias. The vast majority of this trash (about 6,000 tonnes) is buried in the Doña Juana dump, which reports often describe as overflowing and an environmental and health risk. The city's collection system, in place since 2018, divides the capital into five zones worked by private firms. Their concessions will expire on 11 February 2026, though it was not yet clear if the city had a specific and better plan afoot to tackle a problem residents believe had worsened. Trash piles are a common sight on streets and the municipal government has identified numerous 'critical points' where trash piles up. A good deal of collection and recycling is undertaken by informal pickers the city has sought to recruit on a more formal basis. Most recently the municipality counted 22,000 recyclers it said were helping recover 1,200 tonnes of trash (or 16% of 7,500 tonnes) daily. Just over half of the capital's solid trash is organic or food remains, with just under 17% consisting of plastic and just under 14%, other packacking (including Tetrapack-style boxes), according to the city's Public Services department.
Friday, 10 October 2025
Parliament in Peru sacks president
Peru's parliament voted on the night of 9-10 October to sack President Dina Boluarte Zegarra, citing her "permanent moral incapacity" to govern and perceived inability to get a grip on rampant crime and violence. One hundred and twenty one (or two) legislators attending the session (out of a total 130 members) all voted for her dismissal, which would have gone through with 87 votes. Parliament then appointed the Speaker José Jerí Oré as acting president ahead of the general elections scheduled for April 2026. Boluarte became president in late 2022 when parliament sacked her predecessor Pedro Castillo, and was Peru's first female president. Jerí would become the third president of Peru within Castillo's five-year presidential term, which began in 2021. In her last speech to the nation, Boluarte said she had performed her duties with "decency and honesty," and the constitution did not foresee the moral incapacity cited by parliament as a cause of impeachment. She called for transparent elections and urged voters to vote with discernment. "Think not once, not twice nor three times, think various times to whom you will give your vote," she said in her last public address.
Venezuelan opponent given Nobel peace prize
The conservative Venezuelan politician and leading opponent of the country's socialist regime María Corina Machado, was awarded the 2025 Nobel peace prize on 10 October, for her "tireless work promoting democratic rights" for Venezuelans and efforts toward a "just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy." Machado was banned from running for the presidency in 2024, but recognized as the country's leading opponent and the political force behind the liberal presidential candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia. Maduro declared himself winner in those elections, facing down international skepticism, later prompting González to flee the country and Machado to go into hiding. She may have taken refuge inside the U.S. embassy in Caracas. World media had speculated on whether or not the prize would be given to the U.S. President Donald J. Trump, especially given his eagerness to receive it. The White House reacted saying the Nobel committee's decision was politicized, and praised Trump as being a relentless peacemaker with "the heart of a humanitarian." There were also criticisms on the Left: in Spain, the leftist politician and founder of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, wrote online that the committee had degraded the prize and might as well have given it to "Trump or even Hitler." He called Machado a "coupmonger," Spain's ABC reported on 10 October.
Thursday, 2 October 2025
Mexico claims advances in plastic recycling
The plastic sector in Mexico claimed it had made "better than expected" progress in recycling a range of plastics and reducing plastic pollution, just over five years after a voluntary pact between the state and several organizations representing the sector. Notably, the sector stated it had eliminated microplastics in cosmetic products and stopped producing 35,000 tons of "unnecessary plastics," the website Animal político reported on 17 September, citing the fifth annual report of ANNEP (or the National Pact for the New Plastic Economy in Mexico). The report observed a 63% recovery rate for PET plastics nationally, which exceeded the rate in the European Union (56%), with a 34% recovery rate for all plastic types. It stated that in 2024, 24% of the plastic used in all packacing was now recycled, and noted the increasing use of packaging labelled as biodegradable and of deposit-return systems to reuse containers. The report claimed firms had altogether stopped using microplastics as cleansing or exfoliant agents. Its figures were based on information given by 77 firms (representing 51% of the sector) participating in the pact, with actual recycling figures possibly being higher.
Mexico produces roughly 12,000 tons of recyclable plastic trash (packaging, PET, HDPE, LDPE) every day, of which just under 2,500 tons are from Mexico City, according to Greenpeace Mexico and the country's environment ministry.