Smart Bins in an Intermediate Mexican City: Citizen Perceptions and Implementation Conditions

Municipal solid waste management remains a major challenge in intermediate cities because limited source separation, infrastructure constraints, and uneven citizen participation reduce system performance. Smart bins can support waste separation and operational monitoring. However, local implementation conditions are seldom systematically assessed before deployment. In this context, this article proposes a mixed-methods pre-implementation assessment that integrates documentary evidence, citizen perceptions, expert-informant perspectives, a conceptual IoT-enabled smart-bin architecture, and strategic analysis to inform a staged pilot in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The empirical component included a non-probabilistic convenience survey (n=253) and semi-structured interviews with five expert informants. The results showed that 15.4% of respondents reported prior familiarity with smart bins, whereas 79.8% perceived the technology as useful after a brief explanation, 68.4% expressed willingness to participate in a pilot, and 88.1% accepted brief training. Furthermore, economic incentives for waste separation were reported to motivate correct use by 75.9% of respondents; municipal service discounts were the preferred incentive, and 30.4% reported that they required no remuneration. Survey participants and expert informants identified financing, maintenance, vandalism, and institutional continuity as central implementation considerations. Overall, the present study provides context-specific evidence on how citizen openness and incentive preferences align with operational and institutional conditions, and it informs a staged pilot supported by environmental education, inter-institutional coordination, and systematic monitoring.