Strengthening Routing and Collection for Improved Waste Management Fact Sheet

Prior to USAID engagement, the coastal city of Pisco had no formal waste collection routes with
insufficient coverage across the city. As the city grew, routes developed organically over time with
collection workers deciding schedules, frequency, and routes—many times at random, based on the driver’s experience. Municipal trucks collected waste from the same streets in some neighborhoods as
often as seven times per day, while other neighoborhoods received no collection services at all.

To improve efficiencies, new routing plans were developed in all eight districts in Pisco, expanding waste services to 19 percent more of the population (nearly 12,800 additional residents) using the same collection vehicles—with the same workers, in less time—reaching 100 percent waste collection coverage for the first time. With the optimized routes, the city can collect an additional 12 metric tons of garbage per day. To ensure the success of the routes, USAID worked closely with multiple local government departments, neighborhood councils, and the community to communicate the details and benefits of the service changes to residents. The model that USAID used to optimize routing and collection in Pisco can be tailored to other cities’ unique contexts, and the program has initiated similar efforts in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Vietnam