Small project that was started in November 2023 through to February 2024. The Tide Turners Challenge has been designed to inspire young individuals to reflect upon their plastic consumption, discover solutions to reduce this consumption, and lead change in their homes, communities, institutions, and workplaces. This movement seeks to reduce plastic waste where it matters the most:
- Building knowledge and understanding of single-use plastics
- Promoting actions to facilitate behavior change
- Influencing local stakeholders through advocacy on sustainable practices.
Activities being done with schools, youth groups, cadets, and ambassadors. Movie nights have been done with 2 communities Placencia and Independence. The movie shown was Walle, a cartoon illustrating the earth being unlivable due to pollution. Beach/ community cleanups are done. 1 was completed in 2023 along with the students of St. Johns Memorial primary school. A total of about 15 bags of garbage were collected from the municipal pier leading up to tipsy tuna in Placencia These entail cigarette butts, plastic caps and plastic bags, and other small items. These small items may be considered more harmful to our ecosystem as when they enter our waters, the marine life can easily swallow which then affects their system. In Seine Bight, a total of 183 pounds of waste was collected around the community during the clean-up. Independence cleanup was done from the triangular park to the stadium and back to the Adventist primary school. A total of 262 pounds of waste was collected. Under the project education/ awareness on plastic pollution was done with the 3 communities Placencia, Seine Bight, and Independence. Sessions were done with all the schools and presentations were done by DOE / BSWAMA as part of the awareness on what Belize is doing as a country on plastic pollution. Audit completed with Junior College on the waste produced for a day. The audit shows that a total of 24 pounds of waste was produced at the school for the day a total of 832 pieces of which 74 percent are plastics. Most of which is being taken in by the students and staff, this waste is collected and disposed of at their disposal site.