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Middle Island Neighborhood Watch continues to trash the bad habit of littering

For the past 10 years, the Middle Island Neighborhood Watch (MINW) has been tackling Ambergris Caye's garbage by cleaning their neighborhood's beaches and roads. With special focus on the Journey's End area and north of Mata Grande Grocery Store, MINW's members are not only cleaning surrounding areas, but also raising awareness so that other communities are motivated to keep their environment clean.

Since the establishment of MINW, one of their main missions is to help beautify Ambergris Caye. MINW President Jan Van Noord, and MINW Secretary Diane Campbell, who currently spearheads the MINW trash project, have been actively working as a team. Now, with MINW advocating these cleanup efforts, the project has expanded, with many volunteers showing up to work hard.

During a recent outreach program, MINW received various cash donations, which was used to carry out a deep cleaning of roadsides and beaches. On two different occasions, one person filled nine large bags with trash. Just days after, another team was able to fill 41 contractor (55-gallon) trash bags, and local businesspeople volunteered their trucks and personnel to haul the debris away. In addition, there are some individuals who pledged to clean 500 feet of beach and 800 feet of road, some have adopted particular stretches of beach where they like to walk, and others have begun to pick up small grocery bags of trash a day. MINW cleanup efforts have even inspired the youth, as a total of six 55-gallon bags of trash was recently collected by children at Portofino Resort.

Click here to read the rest of the article in the San Pedro Sun

BRAVO!!

Another neighbor sponsored a road clean going north yesterday. Two men, 41 bags of trash!!!
Correction to the article ..... MINW area of focus runs from Journey's End several miles north to X'tan Ha and beyond (this is way past the grocery store). Many hands. Much good work. Thank you. Let's keep it up.

I will follow up a couple of private emails here to help spur some donations. Should a donation ( check) be made payable to "middle Island Neighborhood Watch"?.. Next question; How much was the cost for two men to pick up the 41 bags of trash including the cost of the bags?

I'm IN; hopefully this question will spur some other readers.

The Garbage guy that picks up on docks by boat is 620 6090. He walks the walk and talks the talk they call him the Joker.

Cost is about $15 Bz ($7.50 US) per average BIG bag (55+ gallons, contractor quality bag so it doesn't tear open) filled with average sized pieces of debris .... this covers labour, bag and transportation to the dump.

Thanks Diane.. I really appreciate the effort that you, Janice Feldman, Jan at Portofino and the others have done for all of us.. As I told you privately, it always starts with "this is terrible, somebody should do something about this"... YOU "GUYS" DID. As you know; I am off the island but am arranging for a check for Janice to pick up.

For others who appreciate this as much as I do, please contact Diane for helping, if you are on the island or contact Diane to contribute for 5,10, 20 or 50 bags. Checks should be made payable to Diane Campbell of Janice Feldman.

Again; MUCHO THANKO

Thanks Shyboy!

Hopefully, my contribution was JUST a little "nudge" to the rest of you who truly love this island...Looking forward to watching this thread "sprout"..

Next thing is to keep it clean out there. I drive a certain route to work every day. It's a mile of road. We've had it deep cleaned already so every day I go to work I take a small grocery bag and pick up any new trash as I drive. It's not much trouble and I love the results. Later in the day I walk my dog. I take a bag with me and pick up stuff from the beach - occasionally I find some really interesting things ....... a beautiful wooden boat rudder, part of a hull of a very old boat with a french name ..... these items clean up nicely and make great objects d'art. The bag-a-day is also a great motivator to get some exercise - which most of us need.
Along with the big cleans, we need people who will do something like this daily or weekly. It only takes a few minutes if it is done regularly. Most of the people supporting the big clean have landscape workers - after the big clean is done ( if you're not here to help or would prefer to supervise) all you need to do is send them out for 20 minutes at the end off each day and the place will be spic and span!!

Ambergris Caye is a bustling, growing island community. Some areas have more public services than others. The "Middle Island" area begins about 4 miles north of town and extends an additional 4 miles. There are no public services for cleaning beaches or roadsides in this area.

Residents, via their Middle Island Neighborhood Watch group decided to tackle the problem of beach and roadside trash. The program has been a smashing success. Outlined below is a brief story of what we're doing on both beach and road in our neighborhood. We found that the more we accomplish the more support we receive. The cleaner the area is, the longer it stays clean. The community is coming together in a really good way and the results are significant.

As you know, plastic is in the sea and much of it lands up on what would otherwise be pristine natural beaches. We decided to tackle this ongoing problem as follows:

1. A regular update to neighbors on conditions. Trash deposits are sometimes very light and at others really heavy. Many of property owners are part-time and may not know what is happening in a given day. Our communications along with photos keep them aware.

2. Organizing deep-cleaning of beach ares. There is considerable undeveloped property along the beach and nobody is "there" to clean it. Donations from concerned residents and owners have funded small teams of cleaners, have paid for materials (bags and gloves) and the hauling and disposal of the trash collected. Volunteers oversee these clean-up efforts.

3. A construction team has made some beach barrels (wood enclosure/heavy-duty barrel inside) as shown below. Photos of prototypes were distributed to the MINW area via our mail list. Property owners have stepped forward to sponsor one or more beach barrels. The design is meant to be both attractive and practical. We have a lot of raccoons in the area so we needed a heavy lid on the enclosures to ensure that what goes in the barrel stays in the barrel until it is collected and taken away. Sponsors pay for a barrel (cost is nominal - $160 US), typically placing it in front of, or very near their property. They then are responsible for maintaining the barrel - for putting trash liners in the barrel and periodically emptying and carrying away the refuse along with their own household garbage.

One neighbor donated some educational signs which are being put on each barrel.

Middle Island Neighborhood Watch also tackled the problem of roadside refuse in the area. The program followed steps 1 & 2 noted above. Donations funded deep cleans and then resorts stepped up to make and maintain roadside trash barrels. Large educational signs accompany each barrel. After a deep clean is completed we still need to clean roadsides regularly. A program of resorts and businesses adopting a stretch of road is currently being implemented.

Beach Barrels

Roadside barrels with educational signage

Thank you Diane, Janice and Jan ( Portofino) and the other volunteers whose names I don't know... How about writing a check for 10,20 or 100 dollars made payable to Diane Campbell, or Janice Feldman to help with this project. You don't need to be a middle island resident to contribute as the clean up is appreciated by all..

It's an effort that makes everyone feel good and has a lot of positives but from my experiences the trash cans only mark the spot for passers by to throw garbage bags. These locations will soon be dump sites. Education of the youth is a better effort.' Beta no Lita' campaign is a more effective technique of correcting the problem. https://www.sanpedroscoop.com/2017/09/can-totally-cleaning-belize.html

Update ......... the barrels are a success and the areas around them are not dump-sites - why? because they are maintained. Thank you to those who take care of the program. Agree that education is important and part of that education is setting an example.

Terrific community effort, and how wonderful that it's a success! We are grateful to all who are helping to keep our Isla Bonita beautiful to all!!

Now we need somebody to pull the program together from Captain Morgan's going south. Some areas are pretty nice, others nasty. Any volunteers?
I'll help you get started - after a while the program is relatively self-sustaining. Send a PM if you want to do this. Thanks.

I again applaud the efforts of Diane and the people who make up the core of this clean up effort.. Let me again make a pitch for you to HELP the group by donating whatever you can to help pay for the trash bags, gas and incidentals that this group needs..

Diane, I won't be down until May but I will be in touch and see to it that another check is drawn for you.. Please make any checks out to DIANE CAMPBELL or JANICE FELDMAN