"I separate my trash at home, but then I see it get mixed together again on the garbage truck," explained Hernández, 28, of the Iztapalapa precinct.

From the time the program was first announced, the city´s Environmental Secretariat signaled that the implementation of the program would be gradual.

Yet 16 months after the law took effect, many residents in the country´s capital have not seen any change in how their household trash is collected.

Publicity for the program, on the other hand, has been quite visible. Posters in the metro and painted seals on garbage trucks spread awareness of the program with the slogan: "It isn´t enough to throw away trash - we must separate it too." In addition, twin garbage receptacles with the labels "organic" and "inorganic" on each bin are common in public places all over the city.

HOW IT WORKS AND WHY IT IS NEEDED

Organic trash includes food scraps, vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grounds and filters, leaves, tree branches and grass clippings. Inorganic waste is everything else: plastics, metals, glass, paper, electronics, batteries, fabric and sanitary trash.

Garbage separation makes it possible to make compost with organic waste. It also facilitates the reuse of inorganic items like bottles, cans, and metals, thereby reducing the waste that ends up in landfills.

According to Raúl Sergio Cuéllar, technical director at Mexico City´s office of urban services, the city generates 12,000 tons of trash a day. Cuéllar asserted that in theory, the city could potentially collect up to between 2,000 and 3,000 tons of pure organic waste to make compost daily.

"Organic waste recycling is the way of the future," he stated. "We are going to arrive at this point sometime, so we might as well address [the need to recycle organic waste] sooner rather than later."

Since 1998, the city has operated a compost plant on the outskirts of town. At the plant, giant batteries of compost are assembled from grass clippings, wood chips made from pruned tree branches, and produce and flower waste from Mexico City´s colossal market, the Central de Abastos. After a few months of decomposition and a final passage through a refining machine, the compost becomes rich brown dirt that is used as a fertilizer in the city´s green spaces, parks and schoolyards.

The intent of the new law was to include residents´ separated organic waste in the city´s compost. But even though the compost facility is equipped to compost up to 200 and 400 tons of residents´ organic waste a day - about 10 percent of the city´s salvageable organic waste - it has not yet operated near capacity.

"Most of the organic trash that arrives to the compost plant is not adequately separated for us to use [in the compost]," said Cuéllar.

Insufficiently sorted trash ends up in the city´s landfill.

Compost plant employee, Mónica Estrada, estimated that in recent weeks the city´s compost plant processed an average of just 20 tons of household organic trash a week.

Most of the usable household organic waste comes from the precinct Azcapotzalco, which has managed to achieve a superior level of separation than the rest of the city. Garbage trucks in Azcapotzalco accept organic and inorganic trash on separate days of the week.

In an effort to heighten participation in the separation effort, many of the city´s precincts have recently purchased divided garbage trucks designed specifically to accept separated trash. Of the city´s total fleet of 2,000 garbage trucks, about 60 are equipped for separating. Yet not all of the trucks designed for separation have been retrieving adequately sorted trash, noted Cuéllar.

Leopoldo Muñoz Gámez has been driving a divided garbage truck for the past year in the Miguel Hidalgo precinct - a precinct known for pioneering the separation program even before it was a city-wide law.

Muñoz Gámez´s truck has three compartments, for organic trash, inorganic trash, and cans and bottles.

"I only pick up trash if it is separated," he said. "People on my route complained at first, but by now everyone is used to separating."

ARRAY OF PROBLEMS

But drivers of conventional trucks waiting in a cue to deposit their trash at Miguel Hidalgo´s transfer station had not had the same experience as Muñoz Gámez. "I have no way to collect the trash separated . [The program] is pointless," said one driver who did not give his name.

Up until May of last year, the Miguel Hidalgo precinct housed its very own satellite compost plant where it processed local residents´ organic trash. The facility closed due to land-use conflicts and complaints from neighbors, making the city´s compost plant the only site in the city where organic household trash is composted.

The former director of Miguel Hidalgo´s plant, Biologist Joaquín Díaz, explained that when the plant was operating, the precinct used the compost in its green spaces and in the city´s largest park, Bosques de Chapultepec, and also donated it to nearby farmers.

Díaz is hopeful that the plant will be able to reopen in a new location within the precinct. In an interview he said that he believes it is important for the city to have a greater capacity to compost organic waste in order to one day compost all of the city´s available organic waste.

But separating the trash effectively is the first step.

Cuéllar acknowledged that the city must make a greater effort to collaborate with residents and garbage collectors to ensure that people sort their household trash correctly, and that garbage is kept separated in the collection process.

jjoffeblock@hotmail.com