Belize  

By Andrea Early

 

When I think of Belize, my mind goes back to blue water and sky, beach shacks and golf carts,  old boats and beautiful fish.  I think of white sand on the ocean floor and snorkeling with passionate and thoughtful guides.

                                           Tobacco Caye


 But as my mind travels from the water to the land, I can't help but see the discards of human activity along the side of the shore.  Plastic, rubber, metal and more plastic.  The beautiful waters surrounding the islands bring in plastic with the currents, and the land is littered with containers that the land cannot absorb and the infrastructure is not prepared to hide.  Garbage is everywhere in Belize, and perhaps the staggering beauty makes the abundant garbage more noticeable.

In Belize, we see in a more tangible way what the effects of the developed world is having on the developing countries. As we export our solutions to non potable water (water bottles vs. some other solution that would not be sold in plastic) and at the same time send in tourism, we are exporting a lifestyle without exporting an infrastructure to handle the waste. 

                                            Busy road in San Pedro              

It is estimated that only half of the garbage is disposed of in Belize and the rest of it is burned, buried or thrown into rivers or the sea (Statistical Institute of Belize, 2010)  With development and tourism focusing near the coast and the lack of infrastructure, the garbage entering the water is extreme.

      (Table from the Housing Census, Statistical Institute of Belize, 2010)

Lu, Chernaik and Weiskel (2013) call for NGO's to lead the way to educate the new generation about solid waste and recycling in Belize, and to target neighborhoods and communities asking for change and focus recycling and solid waste efforts where the most impact will be seen.   Garbage may be the smallest issue at hand, when compared to catastrophic climate change, but it is an issues that I couldn't ignore.  Hopefully municipalities will find a monetary gain from recycling and will create the capacity to recycle.  Maybe the younger generation will demand clean water without plastic consumable water bottles.  Perhaps tourism will force the change instead of causing the problems. Hopefully Belize can remain the beautiful place that it is, without human activity pumping so much plastic into the sea and onto the land.

 References

Lu, M., Chernaik, M., & Weiskel, H. (2013). Ocean Waste in the Gulf of Honduras: Where it goes and what to do about it.

Statistical Institute of Belize. 2010 Population and Housing Census. Retrieved from http:/www.statisticsbelize.org.bz/