Recycling at the Transfer Station

Since we don’t have garbage removal service at Better In Belize, we must take garbage to the transfer station, about halfway between Benque and San Ignacio. Transfer stations will never be perfumed flower gardens, but this one is doing its best to deal with what it receives in a responsible manner.

Recycling, even in more advanced countries, is traditionally an on-again off-again situation as recycling techniques change and destinations and haulers appear and disappear. At the time of this writing, May 2021, there is no paper or cardboard recycling due to Belize border closure to Guatemala, where paper and cardboard were previously sent for recycling.

However, the transfer station sorts and recycles aluminum (cans, foil, and other solid aluminum items), plastic bottles (soft drink and bottled water type bottles), steel and iron items (car parts, pipes, etc.), and glass.

If you haven’t yet taken trash to the transfer station, the process is a simple one. From Benque, travel toward San Ignacio about 3½ miles on the Western Highway and turn right into the facility. Stop at the gate, and the watchman will check the size of your load and tell you how much you must pay. A private vehicle generally runs $5. A full pickup-load (must be tarped to avoid losing trash) is $20 cash.

Drive toward the main large building with the big open side, and workers will come out and collect your bags and whatever you have brought them.

The trash is carried into the building, then sorted for recyclable and valuable items. Recyclables are taken to the sorting area, which was on your left as you entered the establishment, and separated into aluminum, plastic, glass, and steel/iron piles. Items in these piles are then loaded by hand into large bags, then into huge bags which are loaded onto trucks to take to their recycling destinations.

• 

• 

• 

Inside the building, whatever wasn’t sorted out is scraped into a big pile and transferred via backhoe into trucks which take the collection to a landfill near Belize City for burial.  

Sorting garbage is not an easy job, but we can make it less difficult and dangerous for the transfer station workers with a few easy habits which will also make our own collection sites (garbage cans and bags) more pleasant to be around:

1. rinse cans and jars before putting into separate recycle bags
2. rinse, dry and crumple aluminum foil before storing for recycle
3. store garbage and recycle containers in a clean dry place.
4. dispose of bathroom paper waste in tightly tied plastic bags so workers don’t have to paw through used tissues.
5. dispose of sharp objects in a way that will prevent someone sorting through the garbage from injuring themselves (taping things to larger cardboard works)
6. don’t throw food or things that will rot into your garbage can. They are a health hazard to the workers.

Dispose of food items at home. Organic items will decompose quickly in your compost pile. If you don’t have a compost pile, it is easy enough to create one.

In our humid, semi-tropical environment, organic items decompose very rapidly or are carried away by small creatures (everything from ants and crickets, to mice and coati mundis), and most small items will disappear almost immediately. Twigs and branches take longer to decompose, so hopefully as BIB grows as a community, homeowners will be offered a removal service for garden, tree and landscape trimmings.

For more information about solid waste management in Belize, check out their website here.