Climate Conscient Belizeans Gather for Platform Solution Workshop

This week, Belize City is buzzing with ideas as passionate Belizeans from across the country come together to tackle one of our most pressing environmental challenges, plastic pollution. The non-profit group Sea of Life has launched the Plastic Solutions Academy, a three-day workshop aimed at finding real, community-driven answers to the problem of single-use plastics. With about twenty-five participants on board, the academy is equipping them with technical know-how and inspiration from both local and international experts. Their mission? To craft innovative proposals that can help restore Belize’s waters and protect our marine ecosystems.

 

Paulita Bennett-Martin, Director of Programs, Sea of Life

“We have people from all over Belize that have traveled in to spend three days together to study plastic pollution, learn about the technical side of what plastics are made from, what sorts of threats they create to nature and our own health and then the people are challenged to come up with a solution. So a business solution. Of those solutions that are presented at the end of the three days, there’s potential for two of them to become funded projects, as well as have two years of mentoring from either BELTRAIDE or Sea of Life.”

 

Britney Gordon

“And who are some of the speakers that are here today offering their mentorship and advice?”

 

Paulita Bennett-Martin

“Yeah, we have Stephen Sangster from the University of Belize. We also have a woman from Rare that’s joining us from Washington, DC online. We have Phil Karp, who is retired from the World Bank and has worked a lot on plastic portfolio work across the world. And then we have Sea of Life speaking as well. And Delmer Tzib, also from the University of Belize who’ll be really connecting us with our roots and talking a lot about natural materials that are bounty full across Belize. And what we used to use before single use plastics.”

 

Britney Gordon

“So can you tell me a little bit about how you guys have really Belize-ified this this workshop that’s happening here? How do you make it so that it’s applicable to the people that are attending?”

 

Paulita Bennett-Martin

“Absolutely. So we really try to take a nice deep dive in day one we’ll be exploring all of the different natural materials that are a bounty full of cross ize, and then we do some mind mapping. So what is it that we have here that could replace single use plastics.”