waste management operations

Waste management in Bogotá is the institutional, operational, and material systems responsible for the collection, transport, sorting, recycling, treatment, and final disposal of solid waste in the city. The system is regulated by the Unidad Administrativa Especial de Servicios Públicos (UAESP), which is responsible for supervising the waste collection and the recycling organisations, the professional recyclers, and the operation of the Doña Juana landfill, Bogotá's main disposal site (UAESP 2024a).

At the city scale, Bogotá generates approximately 7500–8300 tonnes of waste per day, which is depending on the seasons. The most recent municipal data report 7626 tonnes per day in 2023, only 18.1% of them is recovered by recycling or material use (UAESP 2024b).

Bogotá is divided into 6 waste-collection zones, each operated by licensed private contractors under UAESP supervision. These operators manage collection trucks, street-sweeping teams, transfer sites, and community interaction programmes. (UAESP 2024a; UAESP Contratos de Aseo 2023)