AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye Cleanup campaign

With response to the statement that the desirability of the island as a tourism destination will decline, I have to say that from my first visit to AC to the second visit to AC there was much improvement. That was only a year's span. To me it is obvious that the people of San Pedro do want this change. A grass roots effort has been started. Will it be sustainable??? What other efforts should be looked into??? Never would I agree that a person has to look to a governmental entity in order to make a difference. the old addage "if it is to be it must start with me" has proved well so far based again on the difference within the year's time frame. If the government of Belize comes on board - that would make it even easier with reference to the transfer station idea.

JMHO of course.

One simple thing that would make a huge difference is a ban on plastic bags. Either allow only biodegradable plastic or only paper. You could even have some canvas tourist bags with Belize tourist info that could be bought cheaply and then be taken home.

Like many things, change is hard to sell but many communities have banned them completely and survived.

Some communities charge 15 - 25 cents per plastic bag and it really cuts down on their use. The canvas bag idea has become very popular in these areas. Most stores around my home sell them for 99 cents and you can re use them indefinitely. Probably would make good tourist souvineers if they sold them in SP stores.

Last time I went to Marks and Spencers (dept store and grocery store) there was a sign saying they were phasing out paper and plastic bags. They were giving away canvas bags for a while and then the bags would be on sale. At some point in the near future if you shop there you will not be offered a bag of any type for your groceries - expect if you want to buy a canvas tote. BYOB - bring your own bag.

It is remarkable how readily plastic bags are given out here, by pretty well all shops. I bought a sealed bag of dry catfood recently, and before I knew what was happening it had been put into another plastic bag. Since they're all imported the best thing is for a substantial import levy on them, so that they cost the shops a lot to give out and they have to charge for them. I suggest 50c for each bag. That's the only way their use will be curtailed.

To be fair, in England paper bags have returned to being widespread, but they're useless when they get wet. So paper bags would be unusable here for many months of the year.

The only solution is to take your own durable bag, probably based on canvas. Or be prepared to pay for a plastic one.

Reaper frequently suggests taht we take prison inmates out on roads etc to do public works around the country. Unfortunately we have significant problems holding onto prisoners who are in lockdown - no way we can take them out with any assurance they will ever be seen again. Maybe it's a feasible idea elsewhere but for now, for here, forget it. Really!

Link to post on re-using plastic bags...

//ambergriscaye.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/293015/Reusing_plastic_bags.html#Post293015

there was an ad (wish I could find it again) about a "dump community" that had been given, via a grant, a solar powered heater. It looked like a giant magnifying glass to me. The people were showed how to use the heater to melt plastics from the dump, pour them into molds, thus creating new products. If I remember correctly there was a medical purpose to these products like prosthetics or something.

Anyway..... Plastics are a big deal in any location of this globe we call Earth!!

What are some other things we can do?