It would be nice if everyone took a bag and picked up trash on their own but let's be honest, nobody does that -- OK, almost nobody.
The Tres Cocos First Friday group was born of just such a frustration. It doesn't take a whole lot to organize a neighborhood clean up with e-mails and Facebook. It does take a lot to keep such an endeavor going month after month (Hat tip to Sue Blair who sounds the call for the Tres Cocos group and manages the donated bags, trash sticks and gloves that are parceled out each first Friday.)
As Nick said, we are hoping to lead by example although locals and tourists alike are not exactly climbing aboard the clean-up train. People still throw their trash from moving golf carts -- bar cups, beer bottles, Styrofoam food containers, cigarette boxes, diapers, soda bottles, water bottles, etc.
Grand Caribe has now joined us on First Fridays and they already take enormous pride in the appearance of their own stretch of the road. The Phoenix Resort staff and volunteers clean up the town beach EVERY Saturday morning.
We wonder why other resorts on the island, especially north of the bridge don't get out there and clean up their own neighborhood. Sure their beaches look pristine but don't they know that the concrete/improved road is now their front door?
Hurricane Earl delayed our cleanup by one week this month. We'll be meeting at the Paradise Theater this coming Friday at 9 a.m. We clean the road and beach (maybe not so much this time, because Earl) We all end up at Marbucks/Daydreaming Belize at 11 a.m. where Marlene has iced coffee and cookies and Rose Alcantara provides chilled eucalyptus-scented towels -- hey, I didn't say this was all toil.
I have gone out on my own and picked up trash on the side of the concrete road and frankly it kind of sucks. It is a lot more fun when you are with friends and making new friends. Come try it this Friday!
PS: We also successfully lobbied the town council to put trash barrels along the road, north of the bridge. Now, if we can just get a certain restaurant owners to stop using them for his commercial trash, there might be room in the barrels for all the debris that gets tossed off the carts.....
Last edited by Robert Hawkins; 08/07/16 08:32 PM. Reason: fix spelling, added brilliant paragraph.