Japan Donates Garbage Compactor to Belize City, Enhancing Waste Management

The Embassy of Japan in Belize handed over a new garbage compactor to the Belize City Council today. The donation marks the completion of a major sanitation initiative under Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots and Human Security Projects (GGP). The truck, which recently arrived in the country, is the second of two procured under an over-half-a-million-dollar grant agreement signed in 2022. The operation aims to enhance its waste management capacity, benefiting its 60,000 residents. Currently, the city collects an estimated 21,665 metric tons of waste annually, approximately 66 metric tons daily. Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner says the donations have greatly helped to improve sanitation infrastructure in the city.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “If you recall, in 2024 we received one of the trucks following the agreement which was signed in 2022 was for two compactor trucks. And so today’s events really encapsulate and really close off that agreement that we signed in 2022 to have two compactor trucks, garbage trucks granted to the Belize City Council. As you know, in many of the South Side areas we have a lot of hotspots, what we refer to as hotspots, which are abandoned properties that are used for garbage dumps. And so the current contract that we have with the Belize Waste Control does not provide for that type of pickup. And so having two trucks now to provide that service along with our dump trucks, really  make us operate much more efficiently and effectively.”

Additionally, today saw the unveiling of a new fleet of pick-up trucks being added to the city council to improve the functioning of the various departments in the council. 12 of the trucks are a result of a trade in that occurred with 7 being diesel and 5 being EV pickup trucks. Along with those came 3 Foton utility trucks bringing the total value of the vehicular investment to approximately 1.2 million dollars. Mayor Wagner says that it is much needed after five years using the past ones. 

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “As you know when we came into office in 2018 we only had like two pickup trucks to facilitate service for the city, enforcement, traffic management and at that point in time in 2018 we made a loan for 12 trucks for a five-year period. The trucks really did well for us. They performed well over that period of five years, but they deteriorated and depreciated over time. And so as to not have them depreciate to the point where you don’t get back anything, what we have done with the existing trucks is trade those back in and in return get these 12 new pickup trucks. Seven of them are diesel and five of them are EVs. And so with the trade in value that we took in, it really lessened the amount, but the total value here the 12 pickup trucks along with the 3 Foton utility trucks really run us about $1.2 million.”
 

The Investments and donations of the day will bring the council up to par with its automotive resources.