Let’s Show We Mean It! North Ambergris Alliance Clean-Up #1
Almost every day, I drive from our home at 8 miles north, Ambergris Caye to San Pedro town. It’s about 35 minutes in the golf cart. Some of the road is paved…some is unpaved (BUMPY). One thing that can always be counted on is the roadside trash and debris.
Folks throw trash – cans, bottles, chips bags, styrofoam to-go plates – on the sides of the road. Construction crews toss cement bags and empty boxes in heaps around their work sites. Sargasso is piled on the side of the road along with the trash that washes ashore with it.
And garbage attracts more garbage.
It’s frustrating. It looks really bad for our residents and it looks really bad for our visitors. It says that we don’t care about our island. And I know that isn’t true. Most, like me, just feel overwhelmed by it…and helpless.
There are lots of reasons for the trash. Some I understand, like there is no household trash pick-up north of 5 miles Ambergris Caye (or in the entire Secret Beach area) or the lack of trash bins to properly dispose of your garbage, especially outside of town. Some I don’t understand at all. But excuses don’t really matter, right?
So many tourists stay on the north side of Ambergris Caye and every single visitor takes the ride up to Secret Beach on their trip to the island. It’s many people’s first real view of our island. And it’s not a good one.
So…a group has organized on the North Side of the island to start addressing some of the issues. By coordinating the community AND by lobbying the government for assistance.
I believe that tackling this issue should be the top priority of the Belize Tourism Board. Kiosks, plazas, and even roadshows are great, but eco-tourism is an empty sell if there is trash all over the place when visitors arrive. (This is the opinion of this blogger and this blogger alone 🙂 )
So we started a group – North Ambergris Alliance to start address some of the issues – big and small – together.
We are starting with a clean-up. The first mile. It’s actually Mile 2 north Ambergris Caye (since the miles are officially marked from the old police station formerly at Central Park) From the bridge to the Truck Stop.
We hope that as many of your as possible can make it to the event but we also understand that many of you can not. We hope that this event is the first of MANY. And we will be learning as we go. Maybe the mile is too much – maybe we need to go by half miles. Maybe we need to have a few different meeting points….we shall see.
But we want to get started. Especially as we build up to December and the start of a new season.
Here are some other ways to help!
Join our Facebook group and participate in the discussions. (More details are on our FB page)
If you can come out for an hour – or half an hour – or just clean up a bit by the empty lot next to you – that would be amazing. You can leave bags on the roadside in this first mile for pick-up later on Saturday..
Donate bags, gloves, rakes – items such as rakes and boots we can keep track of and label and return after use. We also can take monetary donations to purchase items we are needing more of. Please feel free to send Lexi (the mile coordinator!) a WhatsApp message to 614-3340.
Here’s our official list. It will be growing!
What can you do? A lot!
- Focus on cleaning and beautifying the area around your home or business
- Volunteer hands-on help on clean-up days (to be announced)
- Donate helping hands by assigning workers from your business to help on clean-up days
- Donate goods (trash bags, etc) or cash (for wages & materials) to clean-up campaigns
- Adopt a stretch of road or beach or a vacant lot that is not being tended to, and make it shine
- Dispose of your trash and yard waste property – if you are an apartment or condo owner, lobby your management team to properly clean up!
- Support businesses that keep their surroundings clean!
Thank you all. We want to show that we mean business – in that way we can set bigger goals…and clean up our community!
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Bless you for your initiative. Please check out a close friend’s ministry in Israel called The Beautiful Land Initiative. https://www.beautifulland.org/ They formed a US nonprofit to raise money for the acquisition of trash bins and created a group such as your North AC group, but work with all the municipalities across Israel and have received support to clean up the parks and beaches using volunteers. This would be a wonderful initiative across the entire Island and businesses also sponsor trash bins and have their names on the bins they donate or contribute towards.
Hi Rabbi
Trash bins are a great idea. Unfortunately, public trash bins on the island of Ambergrise Caye quickly become dumping grounds for including but not limited to; local residential garbage, construction waste, old washing machine and air conditioners….im not a nimbly, but I dont think many owners would appreciate having one in close proximity to their property for that reason….especially when the town itself can’t be bothered to do anything about general population garbage north of the bridge
Each resort should designate a person to help each Saturday to clean up the road bordering their resort.
Good afternoon.
Wife and I will be over in a couple of weeks. Would like to participate Oct 19. Not on facebook but guess I’ll have to join eventually. Am on what’s app. Hope you have a good turn out this Saturday.
Thank you for doing this. I live at Sapphire Beach and the trips back and forth to town all you see is trash. Great initiative. Will be back January. Thanks again for all you are doing.
Thank you for stepping up and making this happen.. been a long time coming.
Dumping trash is a stinker. Just act like a civilized human being. No need for that.
Raise awareness. Tell everyone about it. Get that group together. It works.
For the big dumping of trash. Get a trail cam. They always seem to go to the same spot. Get a picture of the culprit and put the culprit’s picture up on the wall of shame.
Raise awareness. It works.
Great job Scoop!
We are 6.5 miles north of town and we have trash pickup. Just FYI, it is available.
Oh that’s good to know! 6.5 miles is up by…La Perla…or Portofino? I wonder where the official stop point is. We are at 8 miles and trash truck doesn’t come here.
I think Rebecca is absolutely correct about getting BTB involved. I’m not sure who they report to / Ministry of Tourism? But when you think of EVERY tourist dollar generated by hotels and individuals like myself is taxed at 9% simple math tells you they are generating multi millions of dollars. And what major expense do they have other than advertising and the obvious payroll, rent etc. I know this is an oversimplification but I think they should more than have the means to at least provide trash bins at every mile marker or subsidize the garbage truck to go further North.
If anyone knows where I could get an external audited financial statement of the BTB please let me know
Outdoor trash cans could be strategically spaced and affixed to electrical poles along the road north, perhaps on ones with lights, so that by-passers would feel more inclined to stop during evening hours, to reinforce the community effort and good behavior. They could be standard in design, maybe select several alternating colorful versions, to promote the island feel. All could have a slogan such as “Keep San Pedro Beautiful” or “Preserve our Natural Beauty” or something appropriate. Local businesses, resorts and organizations could participate by donating (“Adopting”) a can whose name could be displayed in acknowledgement of their contribution. It would require efforts by the city to collect and replace the bags. I agree the resorts should play a major role considering a very large percentage of the traffic are their guests. Being in Property Management for almost 40 years now, I know they all have operating budgets that should easily support this expense. This would take a town hall meeting asking that an associate for each resort to present.
A great start to a big problem! I look forward to participating when I am on the island!
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