Figuring out which garbage company collects your garbage, when they do it, how much it costs and how to pay them should be a lot easier than it is in Merida. To make that process easier for everyone, here are the details for the two companies that serve most of the Merida urban area.
Two Major Garbage Companies in Merida
Company Name: PAMPLONA
Phone: 999-984-4799
Office hours: Monday-Friday, 8 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM to 6 PM. Saturdays 8 AM to 12 PM
Address: Calle 66 # 720-B between 99- F and 101 diagonal
Directions: Follow Calle 66 south, past the Plaza Grande. After you pass by the cemetery (on your right), the Pamplona office will be on your left.
Cost: $14.00 pesos monthly.
Pamplona’s Schedule: Monday: organic, Tuesday: inorganic, Friday: organic.
Company Name: SERVILIMPIA
Phone: 999-942-0000 ext. 81200
Office hours: Monday-Friday, 8 AM to 3 PM
Address: Calle 62 x 59 in Centro, Building Condesa
Cost: $14.00 pesos monthly
Servilimpia’s schedule: Monday: organic, Wednesday: inorganic, Friday: organic.
Other Details About Garbage Service in Merida
Each company serves different areas in Merida. You can call and provide them with your address and they will tell you which company serves your area. Or you can just ask a neighbor.
After you have figured out which company is yours, go to their offices and ask for the service and pay the fee. You might get lucky and a representative from the company will come to your door asking for the fee. We suggest you pay for the entire year instead of each month. This is more convenient, it saves trips to their office or answering your doorbell every month, and you get a discount.
Garbage Collection and Recycling in Merida Yucatan
Either way, be sure to keep your receipt of payment. If you ever find your garbage not picked up, you will need to show the recent as proof of payment in order to get service.
If you live in downtown, they try to collect the trash at night. On the day that they are picking up, leave your trash bags outside of your house on the sidewalk. If you are unsure which night they come in your neighborhood, as they don’t always come on the nights indicated, again, check with your neighbors.
Find out when the trucks come to your neighborhood, and try to only put the trash bags out an hour or so before they will be picked up. This saves the neighborhood from trash scattered by scavenging dogs and also saves everyone, yourself included, from the not-so-lovely odor of trash that is being cooked in the hot sun.
You can leave large items outside your door and the garbage service MIGHT take them away. If the men coming to collect the garbage feel that you have left them something that is outside the boundaries of “normal”, you might find them banging on your door for your attention. Answer the door, thank them for their service, and hand them fifty to a hundred pesos, depending on what you are asking them to haul away.
It is also customary to give them a propina (tip) of $100 pesos or so during the Christmas season.
Recycling
Recycling is done in the Yucatan, but probably not in the way you are used to if you come from the US or Canada. The garbage companies do not separate out recyclable trash and recycle it. However, there are recycling centers where you can take glass, cans, metals and other things and get paid for them. There is a recycling center behind the Parque de la Paz, on the other side of the railroad tracks, for instance. Take your boxes of recyclables there and they will pay you a few pesos for your trouble.
You can also leave recyclable items (glass, cans, cardboard) in separate bags when you leave out your trash. The garbage workers remove anything from the trash they collect that they can take to a recycling center for a little extra cash. If you leave those items in separate bags for them, you just make that work a little bit easier for them.
many of the grocery chains; superama, chedraui, also have recycling bins now!
Good point! We have seen recycling for plastic bags there… anything else?
yes, they have bins for carton, plastic, and I think newspaper – I separate all my stuff for the trash haulers, I feel like they can make better use of the stuff.
In our corner of Santiago Servilimpia collects Mon., Tues, and Thurs. We have friends in Santa Ana and they collect every weekday in the evening. They make no distinction regarding organic and inorganic. You can pay for the service for the entire year in January when you pay your property taxes. They give a discount for the advance payment of two free months.
14 pesos? Price depends on where you live, at least with Servilimpia. Have lived in Fracc La Florida Piños and now in Fracc. Campestre. Both places the service cost something like 53 pesos/mo, or 2 months free if paid a year in advance.
A convenient way to pay Servilimpia is at a Ventanilla Unica Municipal. At least at the VUM at Plaza Fiesta, a Servilimpia rep is there to assist you, with payment going to the city´s cashier in the same office.
The information about collections above was given to us by the companies themselves. If their actual service is different from their advertised service, that would not surprise us. Thank you for your feedback!
Be careful when paying at the door. I did and they didn’t pickup my garbage even though I paid for the whole year. I had my Mexican friend call them and they said to go to place downtown. They told me my business must be very large based on what I was paying. I told them my house was the smallest on the street and not a business. The guy came the next month and I showed him my house was a home not a business, he corrected my receipt and I had to tell him to fix his records. The next year he came back to collect the money, as it turned out he no longer worked for the company and gave me a receipt which was not official. It was the companies copy. A women came the next month wanted me to pay again, she took my receipt and said she would come back the following week, through my neighbour, she didn’t come back. I went to the office near the cemetery with my Mexican friend they credited me for the money I already paid and told them I would be paying at their office in the future.
Thanks for sharing Ray!
How much does it cost for the average residential house?
Mary, the fees depend on the area in Merida where your house is, they can go from 15 pesos to 50 pesos monthly approximately.
Thank you.
I pay US$100/mth for water, sewer and garbage collection where I am now. Even 50 pesos is kind of shocking :-). Maybe I can bring some garbage with me on my next trip (just kidding).
I have another question, and I know the answer will vary considerably.
Let’s say someone keeps two mini-splits on close to 100% of the time during the hottest months: one in the bedroom and one in the living room, for example. How much would the monthly bill be in the worst case?
I know electricity is expensive in Mexico, but I’m curious about how expensive relative to where I live now.
Mary, we are sorry but it is hard to answer your question, it depends on the capacity of each A/C, on how old or new is the electrical installation of the house, the age of the A/C´s, etc. But to give you an example, paying a bill of around 5,000 pesos monthly is quite high (around 300 USD).