“See wa litterbug? Call dem out!” I love Belize. I love our celebrations. I love seeing the flags, the music, the costumes, the dancing, the pride.
But after the celebrations this year, seeing the amount of garbage left behind honestly broke my heart.
I was on a float watching people throw cups, bottles and garbage onto the street, sometimes almost with this attitude of, well, somebody from the Town Council is coming behind us to clean it anyway.
And yes, they probably are. But why should they have to pick up a bottle you were perfectly capable of carrying for another five minutes?
My friend Rosana shared that while she was in San Pedro, she actually watched a woman throw her beer bottle straight into the lagoon. The lagoon.
And all over social media, Belizeans from different parts of the country were sharing the same frustration. After all that Belizean Pride, we were leaving Belize covered in garbage.
But instead of us just getting mad every year, posting pictures, calling people nasty and then doing the exact same thing next September, what can we actually DO?
Because I also think we have to be fair about something. Sometimes there genuinely isn’t a garbage bin nearby.
So let’s ...