Trash continues to be a huge headache for the citizens of Mexico. Back in 2011 the local government of Mexico City closed off Bordo Poniente, one of the largest landfills on the planet which spans 927 acres of land. This was initially done to make Mexico "greener".

However, it has done more bad than good to the people of Mexico City. Almost a decade after, illegal dumping has increased in the capital and every now and then the city rushes to find a new dumping ground. There are 70 million tons of trash buried under Bordo Poniente which still poses a threat to residents as it can cause groundwater and soil pollution.

Mexico's infectious waste

As COVID-19 cases rise and the death toll increases by the day, Mexico faces another threat. The country has an increase in illegally dumped garbage. These include biomedical waste which can be infectious if not disposed of properly and an alarming number of discarded coffins.

With over 5,000 deaths in the country, crematoriums are out of their wits. A crematorium in Mexico City normally handles a maximum of three bodies a day, but since the coronavirus pandemic they are now having up to 20 bodies per day. And because of this there is a huge pile of coffins outside the city's crematoriums.

Coronavirus guidelines require dead bodies to be cremated; however to be transported to a crematorium they have to be placed inside a container, such as that of a coffin. After the body has been cremated, coffins can no longer be reused because bodily fluids may have leaked out already causing a mountain high pile of unwanted coffins.

A 2019 law allowed the re-use of coffins in Mexico only after they have been disinfected.

In Puebla state a warehouse was discovered to have 6,000 cubic yards of medical waste which almost reached the ceiling. The situation was so bad that the walls of the metal warehouse were on the verge of collapsing because everything was so tightly packed inside. Another 3.5 tons of biomedical waste was found in a forest in the town of Nicolás Romero. Somebody had been dumping medical waste in the woods where partly incinerated human tissue was found just lying around.

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The Coronavirus is also creating a garbage problem

Personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves are to be disposed of after use. Piles of masks and gloves have been seen dumped improperly in major cities all across the globe, sadly most of these PPEs are seen washed up on beaches. If these protection gear are not disposed properly they could easily contaminate any area it comes in contact with.

In the Chinese province of Wuhan, the government needed to build a new medical waste plant during the peak of the outbreak because hospitals were producing six times more hazardous waste compared to before the pandemic began. Medical waste produced per day in Wuhan alone was 240 tons, the same weight of a fully grown blue whale.

Last April, the World Health Organization published guidelines on water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management during this pandemic.