A private company began collecting household waste this month in the Juan Delio Chacón Aldana neighborhood and in the Sierra Caballos locality, on the Island of Youth, with a fee of 100 pesos (CUP) per month per household, marking another step towards the privatization of a service that was historically free in Cuba.
The service is managed by the small and medium-sized enterprise Belmary, headed by Florencio Maricy Alarcón, whose original business focus is construction. However, the company is now expanding into waste management due to the high unmet demand in the special municipality, revealed the official newspaper Victoria on Thursday.
The service operates on Mondays and Thursdays, from 3:00 PM until after 7:00 PM. In Chacón, there are four cart operators and two collection agents; in Sierra Caballos, there are four cart operators and three agents, as it is a larger locality. The workers have gloves and face shields to protect themselves while working.
"We started by locating the workforce within the community and persuading them," Maricy explained to the Communist Party body in Isla de la Juventud
During August, Belmary collects waste from all the neighbors, whether they pay or not. Starting in September, those who do not pay the fee will be identified through a mechanism that will involve inspectors from Comunales.
Eduardo Abreu Saragoza, president of the Popular Council, was direct about this. "A mechanism will be established to identify them and see what they will do with their waste; for this, we will have inspectors from Communal Services. We will be strict with those who throw garbage anywhere," he emphasized.
Abreu described the launch of the project as an opportunity for his district. "We consider it fortunate that the garbage collection experiment started in our area. It progresses in two directions: one is collection, and the other is charging households individually," he pointed out.
The plan includes an expansion shortly to the areas of El Mangal, the Carlos Fonseca Amador Community, and Abel Santamaría. Additionally, Belmary aims to deliver recyclable waste to the Raw Materials Company, the source specified.
The case of the Island of Youth is part of a trend that is spreading throughout Cuba. In July, the Rampa People's Council in Havana, launched the El Rampeño project with electric tricycles and the same residential fee of 100 CUP.
In May, residents of the Casino Deportivo organized their own community collection due to the lack of state service.
The collapse of the public system is structural. In February, only 44 out of the 106 garbage trucks in Havana were operational due to a lack of fuel and deterioration.
The Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz acknowledged at the end of 2025 the institutional failure to address the issue, and a massive cleanup operation in the capital, which removed nearly 400,000 cubic meters of waste in 20 days, did not achieve a lasting reversal of the situation.
The health consequences are severe. Cuba ended 2025 with over 81,000 official cases of dengue and chikungunya, diseases directly linked to waste accumulation.
In this context, the small and medium-sized enterprise Belmary represents the consolidation of a model in which a service that was previously free now depends on the citizens' pockets.
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