D.O.E. says Fines and Fees in Proposed Plastic Ban Legislation will be Reviewed

As you may know by now, the Department of Environment is pushing full steam ahead to phase out single use plastics and Styrofoam in Belize by December of this year. The phase out begins when the draft legislation is passed next month. Last week the D.O.E. met with importers, producers and others in the business to review the draft legislation for feedback and consideration for the final document.  C.E.O. Percival Cho of the Ministry of Environment says that the fees and fines proposed in the legislation are open to adjustments when the document is reviewed. Here’s how he explains it.

Percival Cho

Dr. Percival Cho, C.E.O., Ministry of Environment

“We certainly recognize the passing on of some of these fees unto the price of the product themselves. So we have figured two ways how to handle some of the concerns coming on. One, I need to make the point that the fee proposed in the legislation is only a proposed fee. It was opened for commenting and we received some good comments on basically what people are willing to pay in terms of the permit fees. So we are prepared to adjust those. On Monday we will have the final sit down to look at the comments received and chart out any amendments, adjustments needed to the draft regulations and fees are in there. In terms of the fines, in any regulation written under the EPA have to be bound by those limits set in those EPA, Environmental Protection Act. So the fines are carried forward from the EPA.”