Dr Alfonso Martinez is the New Projects Director of the Mexican NGO Mundo Sustentable. He earned his doctorate degree in Environmental Science in Goettingen, Germany. He has also studied rural, urban and industrial environmental management in the USA and Singapore. He is a university professor at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, as well as a member of the Sustainable World Foundation supporting research and development in a Mexican waste management company. Alfonso has carried out field research and been involved in a series of projects related to the informal recycler integration into formal solid waste management systems in Mexico. He believes that the development of hybrid systems that bring together formal and informal actors provide an opportunity for innovation and development in Latin America as well as having strong positive social impacts.