Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, July 1, 2026 – Puerto Vallarta’s garbage collection problems are no longer just a neighborhood complaint. The delays are creating direct costs for restaurants and other businesses, while parts of the city continue waiting for reliable pickup three months after the municipal government retook control of the service.
Francisco Gabriel Vizcaíno Rendón, president of Coparmex Puerto Vallarta, said the collection failures are affecting the city’s image, business activity and tourism competitiveness, especially as the summer travel season begins. Vizcaíno said the municipality has made efforts to stabilize the system but has not yet met the demand of a city whose economy depends heavily on clean streets, functioning services, and repeat-visitor confidence.
The business concern is not limited to the tourist strip. Vizcaíno said collection has been stronger in visible hotel and visitor areas, while many residential colonias continue to report missed or irregular pickups. That divide is clear in a resort city where hotel workers, restaurant staff, shop employees, and service providers live outside the polished zones most visitors see.
Vizcaíno said restaurants and other establishments have had to hire private transport or move waste themselves to avoid odors, sidewalk accumulation and customer complaints. Those added costs can run from 1,000 to 2,000 pesos per week per business, he said, on top of the regular municipal fees many establishments already pay for collection.
The warning adds another chapter to a service disruption that has followed the city since the collapse of the Red Ambiental concession. The company’s 15-year contract, approved in late 2024, unraveled this year after months of unpaid bills and disagreements with City Hall. Red Ambiental said in March that the municipal debt exceeded 110 million pesos, while the city later moved to end the arrangement and operate collection directly.
Puerto Vallarta formally took over garbage pickup on April 1. The transition required emergency budgeting, the use of rented trucks, and a reshuffling of public works capacity. PVDN previously reported that trash delays spread through several colonias after the takeover, followed by continued complaints that garbage was piling up in parts of the city even after officials said the system was being reinforced.
City officials have argued that municipal control gives them more flexibility than the concession model. In April, the government said four new trucks purchased with Zofemat funds had been added to the fleet, bringing the total to about 36 units, including rented vehicles. That was a significant jump from the limited number of city-owned trucks available during the early transition.
But the business sector’s latest warning suggests the issue is no longer only about vehicle count. Reliability is the measure that matters on the street. A restaurant cannot wait several days to know whether the truck will arrive. A neighborhood cannot keep placing bags outside without a predictable schedule. During rainy season, waste left curbside also becomes a drainage and odor problem, especially on narrow streets and in areas where runoff carries debris toward storm channels.
Vizcaíno also pointed to shared responsibility. Businesses and households still need to respect pickup times, avoid leaving waste outside too early, and improve separation of recyclables. Those practices matter, but they do not replace the city’s obligation to provide a service people can plan around.
The municipal government now faces two tests at once: keeping visitor-facing areas clean during the summer travel period and proving that residential colonias are not being left behind. The first protects the destination’s image. The second protects the daily life of the workforce and neighborhoods that keep that destination running.
