While T&T talks about reg­u­lat­ing an ap­par­ent lu­cra­tive scrap iron in­dus­try, Be­lize is sev­er­al steps ahead. Ef­fec­tive April 16, 2011, Be­lize's Min­istry of Nat­ur­al Re­sources and the En­vi­ron­ment, through the De­part­ment of the En­vi­ron­ment, passed the Scrap Met­al Re­cy­clers Reg­u­la­tions. "The main pur­pose of these reg­u­la­tions, stor­age, trans­porta­tion and ex­por­ta­tion of scrap met­als through a li­cens­ing sys­tem," read the on­line reg­u­la­tions at: www.ddoe.gov.bz.

Un­der the new leg­is­la­tion:

1. Any per­son or com­pa­ny who buys or sells scrap met­al for the pur­pose of ex­port or pro­pos­es to car­ry on busi­ness as a scrap met­al deal­er must make an ap­pli­ca­tion for a li­cence to be a scrap met­al deal­er or re­cy­cler to the De­part­ment of the En­vi­ron­ment. The li­cence may be re­fused or grant­ed sub­ject to the con­di­tions by the de­part­ment and val­ued for a pe­ri­od of 12 months.

2. The trans­porta­tion of scrap met­als with­in the coun­try of Be­lize shall on­ly be via au­tho­rised trucks. Au­tho­rised trucks are pro­hib­it­ed from en­ter­ing cer­tain ar­eas, such as along the Are­nal Road, Calla Creek Road, Jal­lacte Road and the Bul­let Tree Road.

3. Ma­te­ri­als which are sub­stan­tial­ly made of cop­per, bronze or ma­te­r­i­al which are con­sid­ered as an­tiq­ui­ties or ar­ti­facts, as per the Na­tion­al In­sti­tute of Cul­ture and His­to­ry Act, are strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed from be­ing ex­port­ed.

Any per­sons found in pos­ses­sion of any such pro­hib­it­ed ma­te­r­i­al can be de­tained and shall be li­able to a fine of no less than US$5,113 (B$10,000).

4. Scrap met­al deal­ers must first ob­tain an "ex­port per­mit" from the de­part­ment for each ex­por­ta­tion of scrap met­al and pay the nec­es­sary fees as­so­ci­at­ed with such per­mit.

Ac­cord­ing to the Be­lizean gov­ern­ment, these reg­u­la­tions al­so ad­dress the en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pacts as­so­ci­at­ed with the col­lec­tion and stor­age of scrap met­als through the re­quire­ment of an en­vi­ron­men­tal com­pli­ance plan by li­censees, as well as the col­lec­tion of da­ta on the trade of scrap met­al in Be­lize.