Comparative Analysis of Waste Generation Patterns and Circular Economy Potential in Two Coastal Protected Areas of the Yucatán Peninsula

Inadequate waste disposal in ecologically sensitive reserves threatens biodiversity and water quality, which highlights the urgent need for localized waste management strategies. This study provides a comparative assessment of municipal solid waste generation, its composition, and circular economy potential within two coastal protected areas of the Yucatán Peninsula, such as Isla Arena in Campeche and San Crisanto in Yucatán. Testing the hypothesis that local economic practices dictate waste trajectories, the research integrated a systematic 6-to-7-day household waste characterization study with community surveys, utilizing non-parametric statistical methods. Marked differences were identified between the two communities, with San Crisanto exhibiting a notably higher per capita waste generation rate compared to Isla Arena (0.98 versus 0.25 kg/day). Distinct compositional profiles also emerged for each site, characterized by a predominance of food waste in San Crisanto and a greater prevalence of non-recoverable materials in Isla Arena. The findings underscore the context dependency of solid waste challenges in protected marine–terrestrial interfaces, demonstrating that effective circular economy interventions must reject generic paradigms in favor of strategies calibrated to localized dominance profiles.