by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 9, 2024
The Department of the Environment (DOE), which falls under the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Climate Change, is currently making a concerted effort to tackle plastic pollution by enforcing Statutory Instrument No. 17 of the 2022 Environmental Protection (Pollution from Plastic) Regulations.
In a press release on Monday, October 7, by the DOE, the Regulations aim to phase out specific single-use plastic products and replace them with environmentally friendly alternative products that meet the Belize Standards for Biodegradable Products.
The regulated items encompass single-use plastics and Styrofoam products, including food plates, clamshell containers, cups, lids, straws, cutlery, and commonly used plastic bags.
“The Department of Environment will begin to enforce and hold people who violate the law accountable,” said Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer at the Ministry of Sustainable Development.
In 2020, Belize passed the Plastic Pollution Regulation which prohibits the importation of single-use plastic products including manufacturing, sale, and possession in the country. However, the biodegradable standards weren’t finalized for over a year. According to Mai, an alternative product would have been used instead of single-use plastic, which would be the biodegradable plastics.
“Our national standards of biodegradability mean two things: the product has to be made up of 50% or more of bio-based content, and the product has to biodegrade within 365 days. So, those two things we look for,” Mai explained.
“… if the products are not meeting the standards, they will be charged under the law. The penalties for importation, manufacturing, and selling products that are not according to the standard will be between $10,000 to $20,000,” he warned.
With these regulations coming into play, many Belizean businesses that were once flourishing by selling single-use plastics with their products are now seeing a dip in sales and struggling to get by.
One local business person in Belize City, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Amandala that revenue has decreased since the change, because biodegradable “plastic” is more costly than regular plastic, and lacks quality compared to regular plastics. They also noted that business was flourishing before the pandemic in 2020, but began to see a decline in later years, which was, coincidently, the same time the regulation was passed, along with inflation raising the prices of goods.
Similar to the business above, local food vendors in the St. Martin’s area of Belize City also told Amandala that because of the high cost of biodegradable “plastics”, when they purchase them to abide by the law, they have to increase the price of their products to generate a profit.
Mai acknowledged the present challenges facing the sector and mentioned that a Cabinet Paper has been drafted with recommendations on how to strengthen the initiative.
“We have spoken to all the importers, and we discussed the issue with them regularly, and they have made certain commitments for us as well, in terms of understanding the importance of the initiative as it has these environmental benefits. They understand the issue; the issue for them, as any business person, is the cost analysis that goes along with it. The cost of purchasing and importing biodegradable products that meet our national standards is higher than buying products that do not meet the standard; but again, we have listened to them and met certain recommendations, and we have forwarded it to Cabinet,” he said.