The capital of Mexico has begun a new waste management project of composting. The immense city which disposes of nearly 12,600 tons of trash daily, closed its last garbage dump in December and began the process of composting its organic garbage.
The garbage is brought to the new composting area, just outside of Mexico City, buried, then aerated, and mixed with other microorganisms while it waits for 40 days before turning into compost. The city plans to eventually sell this compost to farmers, however the quality needs to be improved before this can happen. Currently the material is being used to fertilize parks as well as medians.
Separating the organic material from the non organic garbage is part of the process. The city pays each tractor-trailer 50 pesos, roughly $3.60 per ton of organic material yet the non organic material is still sent to a nearby garbage dump.
