Is Trash on the Highway Becoming a Bigger Problem Than Potholes?

As road crews continue repairs between Belize City and Belmopan, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development has raised concerns about the amount of garbage workers encounter along highways.

Asked about the issue, Minister of Solid Waste Management Orlando Habet acknowledged the scale of the problem. “It’s difficult,” he said. “I think it wasn’t our culture many years ago. I don’t know what has happened for it to change, but I would dare to say that we don’t take care of our environment as much as we would take care of another environment when we get out of our country.”

Habet pointed to examples of Belizeans holding on to litter when abroad, only to discard it once back home. He added that he has personally confronted drivers who throw garbage from their vehicles, sometimes receiving hostile reactions.

The minister also revealed that illegal dumping has affected his own farm, where cattle have died after eating plastics discarded along the roadside.

To help manage the problem, the ministry has been working alongside road crews to clean affected areas, providing garbage bags and equipment to assist with cleanup efforts. He praised recent cleanup efforts by school scouts near Esperanza but stressed that volunteer initiatives alone are not enough. “We as a people have to do better than that. It has to start from very young, instruction from the parents and also in school,” he said.