Garbage Crisis Becomes Permanent Feature of Matanzas Urban Landscape

Explore how the fuel crisis has left the Cuban city of Matanzas buried in garbage, and meet the 75-year-old woman surviving through informal recycling.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 16, 2026, 11:11 AM EDT

Source: Havana Times

Systematic Failure in Urban Waste Management

What began as an intermittent nuisance in Matanzas has officially evolved into a sustained humanitarian and environmental crisis. The frequency of municipal waste collection has been drastically reduced due to a lack of fuel for transport vehicles, leading to massive piles of refuse on street corners, porches, and vacant lots. This accumulation is no longer a temporary occurrence but a permanent feature of the urban landscape, forcing citizens to live in constant proximity to decomposing organic matter and industrial waste.

Public Health Risks and the Rise of Toxic Smoke

In a desperate attempt to curb the spread of rodents, mosquitoes, and other disease-carrying insects, residents have increasingly resorted to setting fire to makeshift garbage dumps. This localized response has created a secondary public health emergency. Neighborhoods are frequently blanketed in toxic smoke released by the combustion of plastics and chemical products. Unlike formal incineration facilities, these open-air fires release unfiltered hazardous substances directly into inhabited areas, severely compromising local air quality and the respiratory health of the community.

The Missing Economic Chain of Recycling

The crisis highlights a stark technological divide between Cuba and other nations. While many countries have integrated waste management into a productive economic chain—where aluminum, glass, and plastics are sorted and sold to sustainable industries—the Cuban system remains fundamentally broken. In Matanzas, waste management is treated solely as a problem of transport and disposal rather than a resource opportunity. Infrastructure for large-scale recycling is virtually non-existent, leaving valuable raw materials to rot or burn in the streets.