Basura Cero program (Bogotá Humana)
Description
Public policy for integrated waste management implemented by the Bogotá mayor's office (Gustavo Petro administration) within the Bogotá Humana development plan starting in December 2012. It sought a cultural shift in the perception of waste by articulating separation at the source, extended producer responsibility, reduced landfill disposal and, above all, the inclusion of informal waste pickers as providers of the waste recovery service. It leveraged the existing informal infrastructure and aimed to divert around 20% of waste from the landfill. It lost continuity after the change of administration (2016), with a heavily questioned recycling model.
Lessons learned
Political discontinuity is the greatest risk: when the administration changed in 2016 the model weakened. The literature and the press point to flaws in the collection and recycling model itself: application of a market-centered scheme, omission of rules for charging tariffs that generated losses for waste pickers, hasty signing of concession contracts and variation in service tariffs. Lesson: a circular economy policy that includes waste pickers needs clear tariff rules and shielding from the electoral cycle so as not to dispossess those it was meant to benefit.