As part of his weekly tours of strategic local contributors to the country's economic and social development, the President first visited the "Alfredo Ramonal" Base Business Unit, where non-ferrous waste is processed and sorted.

After touring each area and greeting workers at their posts, the Head of State recognized how the entity has taken advantage of the opportunities opening up for the business sector and increased its income in the most difficult times.

Sadie Jiménez Condés, director of the UEB, explained to the press what they have done differently to obtain results despite the challenge posed by prolonged blackouts for raw material processing. She also provided details of her exchange with President Díaz-Canel.

"He was interested," she said, "in how we can produce according to the country's circumstances. We explained that we have differentiated work schedules with electric transport for workers. He was very interested in wages and worker turnover. Here there is no turnover; rather the workforce is always covered, and they are very happy with their salaries, which motivates them to continue."

With an average salary per worker of 40,000 pesos and UEB profits that —as of May— exceeded 3,000,000 pesos, the president insisted that with these revenues it is necessary to improve processes, upgrade the unit's conditions, and address workers' issues such as housing.

The director added that they plan to bring production processes to higher quality standards. "For example, copper will be crushed with a machine we have planned. We will provide electrical autonomy to the can processing plant."

The raw materials processed at the "Alfredo Ramonal" UEB are commercialized with added value to the Desequip company, which handles exports. Following this cycle, President Díaz-Canel continued his tour on Tuesday.

At Desequip, whose mission is import and export for the Recycling Business Group under the Ministry of Industries, the president received updated information on a novel local waste management system recently implemented in Havana.

The innovation project, officials explained to the president, arose from studies conducted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma), resulting from actions the President indicated the previous year to help improve Havana's deteriorated communal hygiene.

Marian Herrera Delgado, a member of the recovery team of the Havana Raw Material Recovery Company, who was in charge of the presentation to the head of state, explained to the press that the new local waste management system aims, through better process organization, to increase recovery without making large investments or increasing the workforce.

In the first months of implementation, export revenues have already begun to increase, although there is still much to improve in the process, such as launching a mobile application and achieving greater participation from the community and non-state economic actors.

Recycling Business Group executives informed the president that this new local waste management system is expected to be extended to the rest of the country's provinces.

At the end of the meeting, the president assessed that this innovation —which consists of better organization of waste dumping, collection, and processing— means converting waste into millions in revenue that the country's economy needs.

He also said that greater neighborhood-level organization is necessary, so that people, state companies and institutions, as well as private actors, know the contracts, dumping points, and collection points to guide the system toward a waste sorting process, which will add value to what many see as waste with no further useful life.

This tour by the First Secretary of the Party's Central Committee of Recycling Business Group entities, which works on transforming solid waste management, is part of his weekly visits to places linked to food production, electrical system recovery, digital transformation, energy transition, and electric transport —strategic fronts where the country's progress is decided.