City Garbage as Future Energy?

Mayor Wagner announced that his council has also walked back on the garbage tax proposal that many felt would be burdensome. Instead, they are now looking at how garbage could be used to generate energy.

Bernard Wagner

Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City Council

“With the pandemic and people not being able to meet some of those obligations right now, what we are looking at, and I spoke with the Chief Executive Officer out of the Ministry of Finance, and Economic Development. And we are looking at other alternatives, other options in respect to garbage. WE are looking at waste to energy type of initiative, biomass, turning that waste into energy. As you may know there has been some substantial investment in waste management across the entire country. Many of that waste management have been built but they are not functioning. So, in my discussion with the C.E.O., we looked at other alternatives of changing the narrative of turning that garbage into energy, where you will be able to cover the cost.”

Marleni Cuellar    

“Are you moving away from the initial proposal?”

Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City Council

“For the time being yes, we are trying to move away from that area. Obviously we don’t want to put other burden on the residents of the city. But we still have to look at alternatives and the biomass is an opportunity we are looking at.”