Thursday’s story about efforts by the Collectivité to improve waste management and sorting sparked quite some reaction, including a letter on today’s opinion pages from a regular visitor of many years whose family stays at Oyster Bay Beach Resort. It shows that also for Dutch-side guests, recycling is important.
In fact, their cleanliness and how they handle trash have increasingly become factors by which vacation destinations are judged, along with sun, sand and sea, culinary options, culture, sights, entertainment, shopping and other attractions. People simply care more about the environment and nature nowadays.
St. Maarten is witnessing a large-scale project to better tackle waste disposal at the Philipsburg landfill with means from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund administered by the World Bank and implemented under the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB). However, where it regards the processing of garbage starting with consumers, the French side is obviously way ahead.
This does not regard a competition though. While shared by two countries, there is only one “The Friendly Island” with a single community, of which we will all be reminded again on November 11.
The Dutch side drastically needs to modernise its waste collection, separation and recycling. It’s a major undertaking, but relevant knowledge and practical experience including examples to learn from are available right across the open border.
There is thus no need to locally reinvent the wheel, but rather follow the lead.
