New Waste Management Initiative Launched in Havana's San Isidro Ahead of 11J Anniversary

This week, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana initiated a two-year project aimed at enhancing the management of plastic waste in the San Isidro neighborhood of Old Havana. The project is funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), as reported by several media outlets.

Named "Local Solutions for Plastic Waste Management in Havana's Conservation Priority Zone," the initiative was announced by UNDP Cuba on its website and social media platforms and reported by the Cuban News Agency. This effort is part of AECID's Ecological Transition Program (PROTEC).

The project will primarily focus on San Isidro, considered one of the most vulnerable areas in the capital concerning waste generation, with a population of 11,840 residents. Planned actions include strengthening institutional frameworks, fostering public-private partnerships, training key stakeholders, and creating community participation spaces. According to UNDP, the initiative emphasizes equity and accessibility, targeting women, youth, and individuals with disabilities who face significant barriers to benefiting from ecological transition processes.

The goal is to establish a replicable model for sustainable plastic waste management in urban heritage settings, aiming to improve environmental quality, public health, and local economic development.

This announcement comes as Havana's waste crisis reaches critical levels. Official data cited by UNDP indicates that as of November 2025, the capital managed to collect 13,101 cubic meters of urban solid waste—insufficient compared to the real collection needs impacted by fuel shortages. The city generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of waste daily. By February 2026, only 44 out of 106 available garbage trucks were operational, and the city had just 10,000 containers, whereas it needs between 20,000 and 30,000. Nationwide, only 40% of solid waste is recycled, according to sector authorities.

The accumulation of waste has direct health consequences: outbreaks of dengue and chikungunya, garbage fires—as occurred in Los Sitios on May 17, 2026—and a ten-day halt in waste collection in Old Havana. The regime even deployed young military service members to clean the streets, yet the underlying issue remains unresolved.

Since November 2025, a measure was implemented in San Isidro and other areas of Old Havana requiring residents and businesses to deliver their trash directly to garbage trucks that arrive after 7:00 p.m. This measure has caused frustration and sarcasm among the neighborhood's residents.

The project launch coincides with the eve of the fifth anniversary of the July 11, 2021 protests, the largest anti-government demonstrations in Cuba since 1959, which spread to over 40 cities nationwide. San Isidro is also the namesake of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), an artistic dissident collective that symbolically fueled those protests and the historic November 27, 2020 sit-in outside the Ministry of Culture.

MSI leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, an artist and activist, served an unjust five-year prison sentence after attempting to join the 11J protests. Currently, the regime, having released him, keeps him in undisclosed detention, allegedly awaiting deportation.

The social climate in Cuba is one of widespread discontent. Over 300 individuals remain incarcerated for direct involvement in the 2021 protests, and human rights organizations report more than 1,200 political prisoners on the island. In the days leading up to the anniversary, pot-banging protests and demonstrations with chants like "Down with the dictatorship!" have persisted in various Havana neighborhoods.