Cabinet to impose tax on plastic importers

Cabinet held a meeting yesterday in which it approved a five percent environmental tax on all imports of empty plastic containers and on the value of products packaged in plastic containers. While this tax is still being worked out, Bowen and Bowen, Belize’s largest producer of soft drinks and bottled water does not expect it to affect their business.

Nick Pollard, Jr., Sales Manager, Bowen and Bowen

“We doubt that this five percent environmental tax will affect the plastic packages used for beverage production by Bowen and Bowen. First of all, we are actually using a plastic perform for the manufacturing of plastic bottles. These plastics bottles are used to carry our Crystal water products and soft drinks, but at the same time we have a buy back campaign for the soft drink bottles and we also take back the Crystal bottles too.”

“One wonders if this tax is not geared up to affect the many one way plastic containers that are imported into the country which provided imported beverages and other products which come in plastic containers. I think these are the containers that Belizeans have seen on the streets in very large quantities. The same could have been said of our plastic bottles, but we do have this program countrywide. In each district we do have bins that we use for the collection of our bottles. Our bottles are coming in any day. We are taking them off the street and are recycling them at the Coca Cola plant.”

The proceeds from the environmental tax will be placed in a special fund for the development of a national solid waste management programme.