World Cup Exposes Mexico City's Waste Management Challenges

Municipal solid waste generation in Mexico City increased 58% during the FIFA World Cup 2026, exposing constraints in the city's recycling infrastructure despite large-scale cleanup and material recovery efforts. The surge highlights the need for greater investment in circular economy infrastructure, recyclable packaging design and compliance with Mexico's waste management and single-use plastics regulations, as SEMARNAT advances new national waste management programs. The findings are relevant for packaging manufacturers, consumer goods companies, recyclers, retailers and policymakers operating in Mexico.

Following the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Mexico City, the generation of municipal solid waste surged by 58%, according to a report by climate consultancy DUA NetZero Consulting. The volume of waste generated in the country's capital increased from its typical average of 12,400t/d to nearly 19,700t/d, representing an additional burden of almost 7,300t/d. The increase exceeded the operational capacity of Mexico City's three public waste sorting and recovery facilities.

The consultancy estimates that approximately 60% of the waste generated during the tournament consisted of single-use plastics, primarily beverage cups, drink containers and disposable rain ponchos that were widely distributed at restaurants, public gathering areas and FIFA Fan Fests.

In response, the Mexico City government launched intensive cleanup operations led by the Secretariat of Works and Services (SOBSE), removing 40 t of waste in a single night following the Mexico-South Korea match. After the Mexico-England match, authorities also carried out the Megalimpiatón de la Afición (Fans' Mega Cleanup) campaign, installing 750 waste collection containers along Paseo de la Reforma, the Zócalo and Mexico City Stadium to facilitate the proper disposal of waste generated during the event.

Cleanup brigades began operations four hours before kickoff. The campaign ran continuously for 24 hours across three work shifts, with the participation of 3,000 workers from government agencies and municipal boroughs. Operations were concentrated around Mexico City Stadium, the Zócalo and Paseo de la Reforma, where the largest crowds gathered.

In addition, through partnerships with private companies, public agencies, educational institutions and civil society organizations, SEMARNAT's Gol por el Ambiente (Goal for the Environment) initiative aims to recover 1.4 million kg of used materials. The program targets the reintegration of 1.3 million kg of used plastics and 19,942kg of used textiles into new production cycles.

In parallel, SEMARNAT is advancing longer-term measures to strengthen Mexico's waste management system. The ministry recently presented the objectives, strategies and action lines of the National Program for the Prevention and Integrated Waste Management (PNPGIR) 2026-2030 and the National Program for the Prevention and Integrated Management of Special Waste (PNPGIRME) 2026-2030.

The proposed programs seek to strengthen the regulatory framework, expand infrastructure and technologies for material recovery, promote secondary materials markets and address priority waste streams, including single-use plastics, textiles, electronic waste, agricultural waste, organic waste, end-of-life tires, and waste generated at ports, airports and other strategic hubs.

The programs were discussed with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) under the PROCEP international cooperation project, which focuses on reducing plastic pollution along Mexico's Pacific coast. SEMARNAT said stakeholder feedback from the workshop will be incorporated before the programs are finalized.

However, despite these efforts, specialists warned that increasing cleanup operations is not a sustainable solution given the city's limited recycling infrastructure. Martha Ricardi, Latin America Strategy Director, Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), said the real challenge is ensuring materials remain within the circular economy.

"The conversation should no longer focus solely on how much plastic we recover, but on how much material remains within the circular economy. We must stop designing packaging for the shelf and start designing it for recycling," she said. To support this transition, APR has developed Design Guides for Plastics Recyclability, a technical reference used by packaging manufacturers and companies across the plastics value chain.

According to APR, factors such as pigments, adhesives, labels, caps and resin types determine whether a package retains its value as a recyclable raw material or ultimately becomes waste. Large-scale sporting events typically generate high volumes of disposable packaging, and when these products contain materials that are incompatible with industrial recycling processes, they reduce the quality of recovered plastic while increasing the amount of waste sent to landfills.

To address the issue at its source, technical experts argue that Mexico must more strictly enforce the existing legal framework, which includes regulations restricting single-use plastics and standards governing the certification of compostable materials.

Certification body NYCE noted that Mexico City currently enforces environmental standard NACDMX-010-AMBT-2019, which restricts several categories of single-use plastics, while Mexican standard NMX-E-273-NYCE-2019 establishes the technical requirements that compostable plastics must meet to obtain certification.

According to NYCE, compliance with these standards can help ensure that products marketed as compostable meet the technical specifications required for proper degradation, preventing the generation of microplastics.

"Current environmental standards are powerful tools, but they require a genuine commitment from the business sector to certify that the products reaching consumers truly comply with the law," said Carlos Pérez, Director General, NYCE.