21st century voyage: Guadalajara has sailed proudly from the 16th century into its current role as an electronics industry harbor.

In ancient Rome, Athens and Machu Picchu, great thinkers had the visions for buildings that were to represent their cultures. Dreaming that their cities and artistic expressions would long outlast them, they employed the leading architects, builders and artists of their time to plan and raise public structures.

Guadalajara, capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, is still such a city--timeless, born out of extraordinary events. Founded four-and-a-half centuries ago in 1542, it became a center of convergence far indigenous Mexican people, the Spanish crown with its thirst for gold and the Catholic Church.

Metropolitan Guadalajara is an area roughly half the size of Rhode Island with a population of approximately 4 million people, making it the second largest metropolitan area in Mexico, after Mexico City.

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS. Guadalajara is laying a solid foundation for economic growth, employment and sustainability. Guadalajara, which once protected its industries while they manufactured goods only for the local market, is now a metropolis where new factories buy, sell and trade with the rest of world.

Many plants are producing goods Mexico has been manufacturing for two decades or more--auto parts and electronic components, for example. But local engineers are increasingly designing these products and testing them in multimillion-dollar research and development centers.

Some observers have dubbed Guadalajara as Mexico's version of Silicon Valley, which means that the recycling of electronic goods and components could be among the opportunities in the region.

RECYCLING OPPORTUNITIES. Recently passed federal solid waste management legislation requires citizens to separate organic waste from bottles, cans and packaging materials. With this new law providing an incentive to increase recycling, the Mexican government hopes to tackle the landfill challenges for proper treatment and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW).

Guadalajara's enforcement program includes fines and penalties for individuals not complying with source separation. Currently, the Guadalajara metro area has a solid waste generation rate of 6,100 tons per day compared to 3,500 tons less than a decade ago. Residential waste represents 56 percent of the total solid waste stream (most of which is green waste). Businesses and industries generate the remaining 44 percent.

Seven landfills, which are located mainly in the city's suburbs, are the traditional destinations for the waste collected. But only about two-thirds of the waste collected is estimated to be properly treated and disposed of, leaving the remaining one-third to be disposed of in open dumps.

As part of state efforts to tackle illegal disposal, solid waste facilities can now be financed as part of the state of Jalisco program Jalisco Limpio or Clean Jalisco.

According to the State Senate Environmental Commission President Senator Luis Alejandro Rodriguez, "For each dollar that a municipality contributes toward landfill development targeting regional solid waste treatment and disposal, the state will match it with the same amount."

With the accelerated economic growth of the metropolitan area, where Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Kodak, Hewlett Packard and several additional multinational corporations have built assembling and manufacturing facilities, it is increasingly important to invest in solid waste management infrastructure.

IBM has reduced solid waste generation and claims to recycle 82 percent of the remaining scrap metal, cardboard, paper, precious metals, hazardous materials and packaging. The site has also reduced energy consumption and since 1993 has eliminated ozone-depleting substances from its facility and those of its suppliers. Water and soil surrounding the site are monitored for evidence of contamination.

At Kodak's Guadalajara's manufacturing and recycling plant, the company receives back 70 percent of the "disposable" cameras that it produces and it reuses 86 percent of the material from those cameras. The facility, a $50 million, 220,000-square-foot operation founded in 1996, is one of the highest-volume, highest-speed factories in the world, producing more than 140,000 single-use flash cameras per day for export to the United States, Canada, Japan and Latin America.

According to government records, more than 100 companies--some based in Mexico and others multi-national--generated an average of 310,000 tons of electronic scrap during 2003. For the electronic industrial sector of Guadalajara, recyclability of electronic scrap is a prime activity among the companies assembling telecommunications equipment.

From computer monitors to cell phones to global technologies, Guadalajara is paying attention to the issue. Public funding of environmental projects is key to sustainable business growth in the region. "We want to prevent any company doing business here from looking at China or any other region of the world as a potential competitor to what we offer," says Rodriguez.

FACING THE FUTURE. To understand U.S.-Mexico trade, it is important to fully appreciate Guadalajara's in-bound processing, or maquiladora sector. According to a U.S. Department of Commerce/Commercial Service report, Guadalajara accepted inputs of components, supplies and machinery worth $88 billion for maquiladora plants dedicated to producing goods for export. This makes up more than half of all products imported into Mexico.

Maquiladora scrap generation and volume often heads back to the United States ms valued scrap grades. Doing business with the export manufacturing industry is like buying back American goods, either in the form of a finished product or as scrap.

Things aren't completely rosy, though. Mexico's economy is often a paradox. It is a country enjoying stable, sound economic fundamentals that many developed nations would like to have, including low inflation (the lowest in 35 years), one of the highest foreign investment rates in the world ($10.7 billion during 2003 and expected to reach $15 billion this year), as well as free access to the largest single market in the world. Yet, approximately 40 million people live in poverty, and its banking system, with very few exceptions, has fallen behind that of competing nations. Most of Mexico's business expansions have been the result of self-financing and very few by international lending institutions such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) and the World Bank.

Like the Parthenon in Athens and the Forum in Rome, Guadalajara's residents want their city to continue to be useful, enjoyed and admired as it is now. A partnership between business and government is looking outside the region, the country and the continent into the future. In a competitive global economy, that kind of attitude should enhance the area's chance for a prosperous future.

State of
Jalisco Exports
(In U.S. Dollars)

1995     3.92 Billion
1996     5.05 Billion
1997     6.51 Billion
1998     7.76 Billion
1999    12.27 Billion
2000     14.7 Billion
2001     15.6 Billion
2002     16.2 Billion
2003     14.3 Billion

The author serves as market intelligence advisor for Fortune Plastic & Metal, is a university instructor and an appointed member of the U.S. Department of Commerce Export Advisory Council; the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce Bi-national Blueprint for Sustainable Development Committee; and the Mexican Recycling Association (INARE) board of directors. He can be reached at [e-mail].