It is Monday, February 12 and from the San Juan La Laguna dock, in Sololá, the garbage on the ground is visible, and of all kinds: fabric, plastic, cardboard, glass, cans and tires. When walking around the place and looking for garbage cans, only two are observed, but they are not suitable for classifying it.
Two trash cans to separate organic waste from inorganic waste give the perception that a separation system works —that should come into force at the national level within a year— but the incipient stage still creates gaps in the virtuous garbage cycle.
In Guatemalan tourism, two worlds converge in terms of waste management. On the one hand, in Panajachel approximately 80 tons of garbage are registered per week, including organic, recoverable and final disposal. There is a landfill, but the design represents a very short lifespan and there is no organization on the days that garbage is collecteda reality that is not foreign to the majority of tourist municipalities in the country.
While, in Retalhuleu, about 130 kilometers towards the South Coast, —a nearby tourist corridor— en Xetululone of the busiest theme parks of the Workers’ Recreation Institute of the Private Company of Guatemala (Irtra), a waste and solid waste treatment plant has been operating for 19 years.
Jorge Rodas, manager of Xetulul, explains that the process 5.4 tons per day and of this waste, 48 percent goes through composting treatment, 11 percent becomes reusable, 10 percent goes to companies with an environmental license to use it as an energy generator and 30 percent goes to the landfill. “The objective is to reduce this last percentage year after year,” adds Rodas.
Circular economy in tourism
But in terms of a tourist destination, Guatemala must climb something similar to a volcano. Or several. According to the 2019 Tourism Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum, Guatemala is in 99th place out of 140 countries and the 2021 Tourism Development Index indicates that Guatemala It is ranked 97th out of 117 countries.
The challenge in the sector touches the root of national and municipal problems, such as water supply and correct waste management. According to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), The average person generates 1.12 pounds of waste and waste per day.
Is the same JUDGMENT that two days before agreement 164-2021 came into force (which required the primary and secondary separation of waste throughout the population) extended its entry into force until February 2025. Basically, the logistics and municipal infrastructure problems of the waste management made the agreement unviable.
It is just one of the pillars that at the level of tourism sustainability could make a difference in the image and environmental vocation of Guatemala in the segment.
Andreas Kuestermann, president of the Agexport Sustainable Tourism Commissionconfirms that this decree has been postponed because the municipalities in tourist sites are not prepared with a plan to begin the waste separation process, nor enable waste treatment plants.
This also delays user education and the change of cycles in the productive sector to promote a circular economy culture. This concept refers to a process that seeks to minimize the environmental impact we have through what we produce and has several factors. First, that the extraction of materials from nature is as minimal as possible.
Then, that the production process is efficient and there is less pollution, that consumption is responsible, waste is reduced and in the final disposal of waste, take advantage of them so that we do not have to extract anything else from naturebut with what we already have to transform it to start the cycle again.
Alex Guerra, General Director of the Climate Change Institute, explains that we are far from implementing a circular economy in the country because a minimum amount of all the waste that is managed is recycled (and recovered). “It is a complex process because there are different production cycles and many of them depend on other countries. Especially the end of the process, what is reuse“Adds Guerra.
Strategy and regulations urgently needed
He JUDGMENT It must articulate with key municipalities for tourism a strategy that leads to implementing regulation 164-2021. Otherwise, when the 2025 deadlines are met, there will be an obligation without a clear action plan. Juan Reanda, from the board of directors of the Lake Atitlán Pro-Rescue Association, says that there is no regulation or plan to implement the issue of garbage classification.
César Masella, solid waste advisor, points out that there is a lack of political will and little vision to solve a serious problem. “We see impacts where there is greater accumulation of waste, particularly in the zone 3 landfill, which receives about 2,500 tons of garbage and AMSA, with about 1,200 tons”. His position is that, to implement this organic and inorganic separation agreement, it must first be focused on areas, before taking it to a national scale.
While Elida Quino, head of Economic Promotion and Sustainable Development of the Authority for the Sustainable Management of the Lake Atitlán Basin and its Environment, recognizes that national waste management is failing and that “efforts must be better articulated with the productive sector.”
Culture of separating garbage
According to the Manual of Good Environmental and Sustainable Practices of the Guatemalan Tourism Institute (Inguat), inadequate management of solid waste is one of the most severe urban environmental problems that Guatemala faces. It is estimated that about 2,500 tons of garbage without counting what is discarded in the more than a thousand illegal dumpsiteslocated mainly in ravines, streets and vacant places.
In Guatemala, at least 50 percent of the waste is organic and in some municipalities reach up to 75 percent. This represents an important opportunity to start composting and convert waste into a resource for the earth. This would be a step forward to start talking about the circular economy in the country.
Guerra indicates that diagnoses they carried out for the MARN, and the United Nations Development Program on six basin management plans in the Pacific Region, revealed that the issue of solid waste It is the second most important factor in the six basins. In addition, they indicate that there are a series of clandestine dumps into rivers where the waste ends up, mostly organic, due to the rains.
“For this reason, from the Climate Change Institute, we will begin to structure with the municipality of Antigua Guatemalawhich is within the Guacalate River basin, a plan of educational campaigns with systems that the population can easily adopt in the separation of waste,” adds Guerra.
Kuestermann is of the opinion that as a society there is no culture of waste separation, nor circular economy. A habit must be built from user education. Kuestermann explains that it is about promoting a national policy as soon as possible, since only in this way will this new culture begin, followed by support for enterprises that are dedicated to handling waste properly.
“This is key, since there are companies that are dedicated to specific waste such as electronic devices or only bottles, so they must be promoted and learned from them,” clarifies Kuestermann.
For this note we attempted to obtain the position of the new authorities of Inguat and Marn, but at the time of going to press they had not responded.
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With information from Ximena Santiago
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