We call it La Isla Bonita - but - with offense to no one - it might be La Isla Basura. We say this because Ambergris Caye has a massive garbage problem. Residents have gotten into the habit of dumping garbage on the island, or using it as landfill. And apart from it not being a good look for one of the most popular tourist destinations in Belize, it's also extremely harmful to marine life.

But the town council is collaborating with the government for a garbage free San Pedro - starting with enforcing the plastic ban that was put into law back in April. And to commemorate the town's 38th anniversary, a meeting was held today with the business community to take the first step forward.

Courtney Menzies was on the island today and has this story.

The town of San Pedro will be turning 38 on Sunday, and what better way to celebrate than for the residents to make a conscious effort towards eliminating plastics from the island?

And it's not just plastics - litter on a whole is a major problem for the Town Council. As our news team circled the mangroves at the back of the island, we could see plenty of garbage stuck between the roots - a hazard to marine life.

In fact, we even witnessed the passengers on this boat tossing a beer bottle into the water.

And the town's mayor explained that this Township Day, the council has joined along with the area rep to start enforcing the plastic ban that came into law over seven months ago.

Gualberto Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro Town
"We don't want to just celebrate it in a way to say, alright, we're going to have a party, but we want to celebrate it in an impactful way that we're going to protect our environment and we want that to be resounding, we want to protect our environment."

"It is a great challenge, it is part of our highest cost of operations here on the island at the San Pedro Town Council. And plastic is everywhere. The culture here on the island has always been to use it as landfill and we want to discourage people from using it as landfill, we know that it is illegal to use it as landfill because they're using not only plastics, it's all sorts of garbage, you're getting a lot of chemicals leeching out into the ocean affecting our environment so we want to discourage that and apart that now it it illegal we want to enforce it."

Andre Perez, Area Rep, Belize Rural South
"The issue here at stake is plastics. We know that we have legislation in place for plastics and it's in place and it's high time that we as a community, a municipality and support from the Ministry to get all stakeholders as well, we're talking about the business community, so this is the invitation that we need to start to get the ball rolling."

"We need to involve our community and let them know what are the laws. And the aim today is to actually ban plastics from the restaurants, from the supermarkets, from the food vendors. Let me give you an example, when you go to buy a hotdog here in San Pedro, they serve you a hotdog and they put it wrapped up in foil paper and they put it in a plastic bag and they put some napkins inside. Imagine the amount of trash just for serving a hotdog."

And while there are tons of plastic products still used everyday - from straws to utensils - San Pedro is starting with the bags, by phasing them out of grocery stores.

Andre Perez, Area Rep, Belize Rural South
"The endgame is to encourage our people to start bringing their own bags and also shopkeepers will be doing their part by providing these bags and a cost but maybe asking them for their incentive of offering maybe their first maybe thousand bags to their customers and say listen, we are giving a bag, we know you're a customer but when you return the next time and you don't bring a bag, we will sell you a bag."

"We know we're going to meet adversity, we know that the shopkeepers are going to say, we're going to get into trouble with the customers, but we have to have the enforcement and that is another meeting I'm going to have with the council today in having an enforcement team walking around the streets."

But the government is also introducing an alternative: eco bags that stores can purchase in bulk rather than using plastic bags. Businessman, Jose Ketz, was at the meeting today to explain more about this biodegradable product.

Jose Ketz, Owner, Creative Marketing
"The eco bags are really our push to try and get into this new move from plastic. If you realize that all neighboring countries don't use plastics anymore, if you've been to Chetumal, you'll know that if you don't have an eco bag, they won't sell you a plastic so I know the minister had asked us if we had eco bags and of course we sell these with, there's a big drive, there's a drive moving into Belize now and so we have all the bags, we print them and we sell them."

"There's two types but this type is the major type that right now the grocery stores would use. They're very eco friendly and the beauty about this bag is that it will eventually become dust. It goes back into dust, it's actually a biodegradable bag and it will eventually become dust again and so if you have it in your house maybe a year later and you go and pick it up it will be dust again."

"These bags are very durable, very strong, they're waterproof, they won't burst or whatever. There are other people selling them but some of them aren't strong as you might know but these ones are very strong, we've put items in them to check the strength of it and it's very strong."

And this municipality is leading the charge towards full enforcement of the law, something the Deputy Chief Environmental Officer hopes others will follow, especially since they're still having issues with illegal importation of plastics.

Edgar Eck, Deputy Chief Environmental Officer
"I think it is a really good initiative, anything that goes to reduce the amount of waste that is disposed I think is very great for the country. What they're trying to do here, I think could be a model for the rest of the country to be able to do, we could see that it's similar initiatives are working across the Mexican side in Chetumal, they have something similar and I think that is something that we need to adapt in country, change that mentality that every time you do to the shop, you will get a bag to put in your groceries and whatsoever you buy, that has to change."

"Indeed, we have been having a lot of difficulties, there are some people that want to import 100% plastic products which are not allowed and so we also find that our borders are porous so there are some products that are coming that are not even from us, and so that is the challenge that we are facing in trying to address that."

And by the end of the meeting today, the San Pedro vendors and business persons present agreed on the first step: charging 50 cents for every plastic bag, until they are all phased out. It's the beginning of a long journey to rid the island of its garbage problem, but both the area rep and the mayor are hopeful.

Minister Perez is also encouraging tour guides to use less plastic as well, starting with the water bags they usually take on tours for the tourists. He believes tourists will be more than happy to comply - and may even be intrigued - by plastic-free tours.

Channel 7