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But, where are these environmentally friendly items available and for what price? We found that Belize has an Eco-Friendly company that has been importing container-fulls of environmentally friendly products for years. Sahar Vasquez has more:

Sahar Vasquez reporting
Eco- Friendly Solutions is a Belizean company that imports and distributes biodegradable items like cutlery and bags. You may not know them by name but It is almost certain that you have seen their products at the Le Petite bakery or on shelves at some stores.

The company has actually been opened for ten years and General Manager Luis Garcia says the first five years were not easy. The environmentally friendly company struggled but now it's paying off.

Luis Garcia, General Manager- Eco-Friendly Solutions
"The products that we were bringing, were bags, some plates all made out of starch which is mostly corn also from other plant-based starch. Pretty much at that time, we were selling a container in three years. It wasn't really a good business but we never gave up. I think the time will come when people in Belize will change their attitudes towards the environment and start using the alternatives which are biodegradable disposables."

Indeed that did happen. Now the company that took three years to sell one container is doing it in four to five months and their product offerings have expanded dramatically.

Luis Garcia
"We started with just a couple of plates and bags. Now we have the entire line of garbage bags, shopping bags, we have the clamp shells, forks and spoons, we also have the cups and we are extending our line to meet the market."

But how does it all work? Why are these biodegradable items so good for the environment?

Luis Garcia
"Our products work like a leaf, they are dumped in the environment. It is just that it takes longer. For example, our products have a coating that protects them from breaking down."

"We use these products that are starch based on a coating that protects them so that they can be a year or two in storage. It is the moment that you put them out in the environment, that protection disappears in when the process of integration starts. It is like a leaf it starts breaking down in the dirt at turn back into dirt."

"You can compost them. If you grab one of our plates and put it in a compost it will break down in less than a month."

But biodegradable is not the only thing the company is doing, they also have technology that is able to make swimming pools chemical free. Yes, that means no more chlorine just pure clean sanitized water.

Luis Garcia
"We use the technology of glass filtration instead of sand and we also use titanium and copper as the treatment. Copper becomes your sanitizer replacing chlorine or salt and then the titanium breaks the molecules of water and makes a lot of oxygen creating oxygenated water in your pool."

"It is water that you can drink, water that is well sanitized, it is water that is very healthy, and it is chemical free."

Now that the demand for environmentally friendly products is only increasing Eco- Friendly Solutions will have a lot of competition but Garcia is confident in his product.

Luis Garcia
"We don't only offer bio-degradable, it is part of our business. We are concerned about who is going to be in the competition but pretty much we are welcoming it and I think that if the playing field is where we will be able to meet the market."

If you would like to learn more about the company you can visit their Eco-Friendly Solutions page or call them at 222-5083.