Santo Domingo Mayor Roberto Salcedo is optimistic that garbage collection service of the city will soon pay for itself and leave a profit. He told Listin Diario that efforts to collect for the service had been successful. He said that at the start of his administration only 10% paid for the service, but this has increased to 67% in February. While in 2003, garbage collection revenues were RD$16.8 millions, in 2004 revenues had increased to RD$44.8 million. He said collections for the first two months of the year were RD$9 million. He attributed the increase in collections to an apparent improvement in the service.