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And while the City Council has its hands full with regulating the butane industry, Phillip Willoughby is also the councillor with responsibility for the city dump and he made a very disturbing discovery there today. Four bags of medical waste were found at the Belize City dump this morning. It is news because it was a major public health hazard since medical waste doesn’t belong at the city dump. The rule is that the garbage from hospital should be divided into red and green bags – red for the actual medical waste and green for other garbage. But the vials of used blood bags, needles, IV tubes, and gloves were in red and green bags. Councillor Phillip Willoughby isn’t pointing fingers. He says they don’t know which hospital it came from or which sanitation company deposited it at the dumpsite.

Phillip Willoughby, City Councillor – Sanitation
“We were on the ground sometime after 10 with a team from the Solid Waste Management Authority and whilst walking to the back I said this can’t be right, green bag with this type of waste and red bag with this type of waste. Here no, it is not right.

Varying persons utilize the dumpsite and someone transported these wastes there. At this time we will be unable to point fingers, make blames and so forth, but what I can tell you is that myself and the CEO spoke and in that conversation we will sit down with the healthcare providers and we will establish some new protocols as to how we proceed in dealing with these waste. But whether it might be a mere incident or intentional, I want to take this opportunity to say to the healthcare providers please respect the colour coded bags that you are supposed to use, please ensure that responsible persons deal with your waste.”

Keith Swift,
“What is the danger?”

Phillip Willoughby,
“Well we don’t know the type of bacteria, illnesses, diseases, viruses, that are within these bags or within the apparatus that were found so with that in mind, we have to be very careful.”

And while Willoughby wouldn’t call names, we do know that the KHMH trucks their medical waste to Belmopan to be incinerated. The waste collected today will be incinerated at Belize Waste Control. That meeting between the ministry of health, the hospitals, and the City Council is scheduled for next week.