Plastic Imports Will Have to Meet Certain Standards

Anthony Mai

So how will the D.O.E. know you have prohibited plastic items? Inspectors will be making the round looking for violations, yes, but ensuring items are biodegradable actually begins when importers apply to bring in their products. Chief Environment Officer Anthony Mai explained the process and also how the public can help with monitoring on the retail end.

Anthony Mai

Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer, Department of the Environment

“Through the application system we have in place, that is the first approach to monitoring, we kind of know what is coming into the country legally. The way that is done is importers apply to import products; in this case, the type of products that is being looked at, with certain information, the information is committed to the Belize Bureau of Standards. The Belize Bureau of Standards basically looked at information to determine if the product meets the biodegradable standard. If it’s D.O.E.’s, then they inform the D.O.E. it complies. We register the product and the product continues to come in. If the products do not comply with the biodegradable standards, the D.O.E. is informed. We then classify these products as prohibited and the importer won’t be able to bring these products in. If the items still comes into the country that is a violation as well. So through that application process we know what is coming into the country. The other step for us, we have a monitoring enforcement arm of the Department of Environment. What we have done so far, we have reached out to all the stakeholders that do have stockpiles of these products, we basically told them they need to inform us before the end date so we could put a plan in place to finalize the disposable or destruction. The option is to destroy it and also there may be an option for them to ship it back out of the country to an area they so choose. In terms of the products being on the shelf, we will start to educate the public on this matter and we will ask the public to report any observation or any sighting of these products for example on shelves, stores etc.”