Bashed on trash.

Pollution controversies are nothing new in Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of 20 million people that has long been plagued by horrendous air quality. Now another problem looms: garbage.

Mexico City alone--without taking into account the greater urban area produces more than 12,000 tons of waste every day. Much of this waste is due to the increased use of disposable packaging during the past few decades. Twenty years ago, the average chilango, as city residents call themselves, created about 1.8 pounds of trash a day; now, that same citizen generates 3.1 pounds of garbage daily. The result? Mexico City's main dump is at the breaking point.

Everyone within the Mexican government agrees that the massive Bordo Poniente landfill in eastern Mexico City is nearing capacity. But politicians are bickering over when to close it and how to find an alternative location.

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Officials in the city government, controlled by the left-of-center Democratic Revolutionary Party, would like to postpone the closure. "A precipitated closure could create serious environmental damage," says Martha Delgado, the city's environmental secretary. "We really want an in-depth, solution to the problem. All we need is more time."

Representatives from the right-of-center National Action Party, which controls the federal government and also the land the dump sits on, are demanding a more rapid closure, citing environmental concerns.

"The problem is that they [the city] have to pay and they're not ready to invest adequately in waste management," says Mauricio Limon Aguirre, a top federal environment official. "It's not our responsibility."

International negotiators seeking to resolve the dispute are fed up with the squabbling. Ramon Ojeda Mestre, secretary general of the International Court of Environmental Arbitrage, is threatening to sue both the municipal and federal governments for not complying with the existing laws around waste separation and recycling. "[The dump] is contaminating the air, the ground, the underground water," he says.

To reduce" total inflows to the dump and buy themselves some time, the city's officials are mandating that, beginning in May, people will have to start separating their organic and non-organic waste. Those who fail to do so will face stiff fines of up to $500 US. At the same time, the city will start charging some big businesses for trash collection for the first time.

"We're going to carry out a very big campaign," says Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. "We'll reward people who do things well, we'll sanction those who do them badly."

"The aim should be zero waste in Mexico City because there's no land, there's nowhere foreseen to deposit waste in these quantities," Ojeda Mestre says.

--AFP, 1/25