“Regla is one of the cleanest municipalities,” boasts a municipal employee, broom and dustpan in hand.
14ymedio, Dario Hernandez, Havana, December 12, 2025 – On the streets of Havana, the filth no longer surprises anyone. What is truly shocking is looking closely at those who, despite everything, continue sweeping. This newspaper approached two street sweepers who, with broom and dustpan in hand, are keeping afloat—as best they can—a public service in ruins. Both are vulnerable men, physically worn down, for whom garbage has become a destiny, not a choice.
One of them, a worker from Regla, explains that he’s been in the job for “a little over a year,” working six days a week. His job consists of “keeping his area clean,” as he describes it. In practice, it’s a daily and unequal struggle against the accumulation of waste, the shortage of trucks, and institutional apathy. Despite everything, he maintains a certain pride in his town: “Regla is one of the cleanest municipalities,” he states. But his statement immediately crumbles: “People don’t want to work in the garbage.”
According to authorities, the worst-performing municipalities in Havana are Marianao, Centro Habana, and Plaza de la Revolución. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz recently complained that garbage trucks weren’t making enough trips to the rubbish dumps and threatened to inspect them “truck by truck.” The head of government also “expressed interest,” according to the official newspaper Granma, in the salaries of “frontline workers,” some 900 street sweepers, but no raise was agreed upon at the meeting, although there were calls for greater demands.
The street sweeper in Regla bluntly details his salary to 14ymedio. The base pay is 2,500 pesos, but it can go up “if you do extra jobs.” However, he had hip surgery and can barely walk, even with the support of his broom. “I earn 4,000 a month (about nine dollars at the informal exchange rate),” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “You know how Cubans are; they make do with continue reading
According to reports, some workers received between 7,000 and 10,000 pesos in the last payment, amounts that—given the country’s rampant inflation—don’t cover basic needs. Truck drivers earn slightly more, but collection vehicles are even scarcer than the personnel.
A second street sweeper, this time from Guanabacoa, is deaf and mute and uses signs and gestures to communicate. He has been sweeping for twelve years because “he has no other choice.” When asked about his salary, he makes a face of disgust and lowers his thumb, an unmistakable sign that the pay is meager. His face, weathered by the sun and exhaustion, speaks volumes.
Both cases involve people with physical or social difficulties, trapped in jobs no one else wants. “And who are the ones who work in the garbage? People like me, who are getting on in years,” acknowledges the street sweeper from Regla. His testimony paints a picture of the country’s decline, with aging, sick workers, lacking job alternatives, and employed by an essential service that is falling apart.
In Regla, the worker explains, residents have to bring their waste “in a box or a sack” due to the lack of containers and trucks. In other areas of eastern Havana, small illegal dumpsites are growing at an accelerated rate.
In stark contrast to this reality, the bureaucracy, gathered in pristine offices, claims that Havana “is not giving up on comprehensive solutions to improve its services and cleanliness.” This phrase, repeated periodically, comes with promises of repairs, reorganization, “gradual” implementations, and “intersectoral” strategies.
The data shows extremely poor results. Of an identified need for 126 rolling garbage containers the industry planned for 32 with “available resources,” and only 31 have been completed. As for the street sweeper carts , there is a plan to manufacture 1,000 units, but to date only 40 have been produced.
The gap between rhetoric and reality widens even further given the epidemiological risk posed by garbage accumulation. These reports acknowledge, between the lines, that the problem is not temporary but chronic. The deterioration of sanitation services in Havana is not solely due to a lack of equipment or funding. There is a decisive human factor at play, as no one wants to do the work. The wages are uncompetitive with any informal alternative, the physical strain is immense, and the lack of resources is humiliating. “There’s a shortage of personnel,” the street sweeper in Regla repeats, as he walks slowly and with difficulty, leaning on his work tool.
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