Panama Strengthens Waste Management Efforts

The San Miguelito Municipality carries its own monthly recycling schedule in the district's districts. According to AAUD's informational bulletins, the work done so far in the district has allowed critical points to disappear, such as the old landfill in the San Isidro Valley. Moreno recognizes that it is too early to instill in the population the habit of separating their waste into seven different components, as happens in other countries, but it can be started with something. The experience in San Miguelito, where AAUD has been collecting garbage since this year, has left Moreno with the feeling of continuing to work on raising community awareness, as they have encountered citizens who do not cooperate. He added that at the meeting he held with the members of the San Miguelito Municipal Council and the mayor's office, he offered the AAUD team to provide training. "I asked them to hold training workshops with their community leaders to convey that desire to recycle, that knowledge that at the end of the day will allow us to change what we have now," Moreno expressed. Ovil Moreno, administrator of the Urban and Domestic Cleaning Authority (AAUD), reported that last week they met with South Korean representatives to exchange information on waste management. The Government is promoting talks with nations that have good waste management, such as Japan and South Korea. "The important thing is to have the desire," said the AAUD administrator, who also stated that he has spoken with deputies to develop policies for extended responsibility regarding the separation of waste generated in homes. "There we are going to start winning," Moreno proposed. "We think of starting a campaign through which people begin to separate organic from inorganic waste." Moreno revealed that in the case of South Koreans, it took them three decades to change the waste management culture in their population. At the landfill, the construction of the new leachate tank is about to begin, which responds to the obligation to guarantee the continuous receipt of more than 2,500 tons of garbage that enter the landfill daily. The new tank will be built in such a way as to prevent the infiltration of leachates, through the placement of pipes with petrous material, the construction of an access road, a perimeter street, and a disposal ramp at the landfill. The official revealed that they are beginning to draw up a pilot plan at Cerro Patacón to compost with organic material.