The Belize Regional Sanitary Landfill Turns 10

The Belize Regional Sanitary Landfill, located off the George Price Highway at mile twenty-four, is turning ten. The facility was inaugurated on July thirtieth, 2013 and became fully operational by September of that year.  Belize Solid Waste Management Project One, under which the facility was constructed, also saw major dumpsites closed down and replaced by transfer stations – in Belize City, San Ignacio/Santa Elena, Caye Caulker, San Pedro and Burrell Boom. While the collection of garbage is the responsibility of municipal bodies, the safe transfer and disposal of solid waste include a screening process before the residual waste is transferred to the sanitary landfill. Communications Officer at the Belize Solid Waste Management Authority Tyrone Chimilio says that a second project is currently underway to address illegal dumpsites and the expansion of the sanitary landfill.

Tyrone Chimilio, Communications Officer, Belize Solid Waste Management Authority

Tyrone Chimilio

“We have transfer stations across the country that have been already constructed. Those transfer stations are located in Corozal, Orange Walk, Belmopan, Dangriga, Placencia and Punta Gorda. Those transfer stations are designed differently from our transfer stations in project one. These transfer stations have two floors. The first floor, we are going to be able to recover the recyclable fraction of the solid waste and the second floor, we are going to direct dump residual waste into transfer trailers that will then come here to the regional sanitary landfill. People have been clamouring why the transfer stations are not operational. I am glad to say now that we have the Belmopan and Dangriga transfer station that will be operating coming this month or come September, so it is coming on stream. What needs to happen though is the soft skills to let those operations happen. What we want to do is to have voluntary separation.”