The Environmental Protection (Pollution From Plastics Regulations) Regulations is a draft Bill that seeks to regulate the manufacturing and importation of plastics into Belize. The proposed legislation, once enacted into law, would establish two general categories of plastics: those that are classified as “Restricted Products” and those that are listed as “Prohibited Products”.

The latter category, “Prohibited Products”, is governed by Rule 25 of the Regulation, which states: “A person shall not import, manufacture or sell any prohibited product.” The proposed law, therefore, makes the act of possessing this class of plastics–which are outlined in Schedule II of the Regulations–an offence that is punishable by either fines or imprisonment.

Goods such as single-use Styrofoam products, single-use shopping bags, and even single-use disposable drinking straws are listed in the Regulation’s Second Schedule as Prohibited Products. This class of plastic products, under the originally proposed timeline, was scheduled to be phased out by December 2019. More specifically, Regulation 31 states:

“Notwithstanding regulation [25], a person shall be allowed to (a) import prohibited products until May 1, 2019; (b) manufacture prohibited products until August 1, 2019; (c) sell prohibited products until November 1, 2019; and (d) possess prohibited products until December 1, 2019.”

It must be noted, however, that this draft Bill, after consultations earlier this year, has not yet gone through the necessary legal processes to have become law; therefore, the schedule outlined at Rule 31 is likely obsolete at this juncture. Additionally, during the consultation process, the private sector members most impacted by the proposed regulation had expressed general support for the law’s intended objective, while simultaneously advising that the timeline is too short.

The “Restricted Products” classification, however, does not fall subject to the complete ban as is suggested for the Schedule II products. In accordance with Rule 3, persons are able to obtain a permit to import Restricted Products, and Rule 14 provides for companies to obtain a licenses to manufacture this category of goods.

The law is aimed at minimizing the quantities of plastics that are harmful to the environment, while concomitantly augmenting the number of biodegradable products that are utilized in the country. In April 2019, the Department of the Environment (DOE), the statutory body that governs the issuance of the aforementioned permits, issued a press release advising importers of BIODEGRADABLE single-use plastics to contact and register their products with the DOE (see full release at the link below).