Despite initial setbacks in Bogota’s new trash collection strategy, the city’s mayor on Tuesday said overall results were “satisfactory.”
The contracts for the four companies that used to collect trash in Colombia’s capital expired on Tuesday and Gustavo Petro, the city’s socialist mayor, took the opportunity to municipalize garbage collection. Petro’s decision sparked controversy between the Mayor’s office, the national government and the companies who did get their contracts renewed.
The new program did not go off without a hitch, according to local media. Supposedly, only 2,286 of the 4,273 tons of garbage was collected initially.
According to Bogota’s Ombudsman, Ricardo Cannon, “in some areas there was a level of improvement…[but] many areas [are still] experiencing problems.”
“There was much improvisation,” stated Cannon.
Petro said that between 6am and 12pm on Tuesday, his office received 180 calls complaining about the uncollected garbage, but after 2pm “those calls began to decline.”