BRL & the use of Single Use Plastics

Living in Belize has always been beautiful and we have always had a thought for keeping our environment clean. Mike and I have always believed and lived “take only photographs and leave only footprints” and practice what we preach. However, life in Belize did mean living with challenges. One of those big challenges was how to get needed and useful items and the cost of those items. “Disposable” always meant crazy expensive, so we have always utilized “reusable” as much as possible. From managing the Lodge in the early 80s to purchasing it and taking over in 1986, Mike and I have believed in “reusable” and re-using as much as we can. It is funny how “reusable” and “re-using” is now trendy.

When we look at BRL’s use of “reusable” and “re-using”, there are many areas that we have been ahead from the start:
· Boat lunches are served in reusable containers
· Boat lunches have reusable plastic drinkware
· Sodas are glass bottles, if available
· Drinking water is dispensed into reusable containers, from 5 gallon returnable bottles in rooms, bar, tours & boats
· Glassware is used at bar, table and rooms
· Table cloths, placemats and table napkins all reusable
· Fuel is stored in reusable containers
· Veggie, fruit and meat scraps, etc are all recycled into a compost pile so that we can always have good, fertile black soil for the plants.

The term “Single Use Plastics” seems to be a recent one, and pre-COVID, Belize was set to cutout all single use plastics by 2021. Along with the world, Belize has postponed this. Even with all the “reusable” and “re-using”, Belize River Lodge has conscientiously tried to cut back on single use plastics even more. Below are other areas where we are now using alternatives to single use plastics.
· Forks for dessert and fruit are stainless steel instead of plastic forks.
· Paper garbage bags in rooms
· Recyclable garbage (cans, plastic, etc) is rinsed and stored in all reusable containers/drums and taken to dump/recycle center.
· Use of card board boxes for transporting groceries and purchases from the store instead of plastic bags

We are always trying to get better and do better at BRL and for our environment. During your visit, if you see an area of improvement, where we can do better to cut down on plastic use, please let one of us know and hopefully, we will be able to implement a new improvement.