Anti-littering signage will be placed in 10 neighbourhoods on St. Maarten over the next weeks. The first sign and a bin were placed alongside Maho beach on Wednesday. In photo: Community Police Officer John Boyrard and representatives of Environmental Protection in the Caribbean, Princess Juliana International Airport and LIVVIT.
MAHO--Over the next weeks, anti-littering signage will be placed in ten neighbourhoods on St. Maarten by Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC), assisted by community partners, and funded by Resources for Community Resilience (R4CR). On Wednesday, the first sign and a bin were placed alongside Maho beach.
The signage was placed in collaboration with community police officer John Boyrard, who had reached out to EPIC and Princess Juliana International Airport after noticing that the area and beach are often littered. “I wanted to do my part in helping to keep St. Maarten clean,” officer Boyrard said.
The initiative is part of EPIC’s ‘Why do we litter? – St. Maarten’ project coordinated by Laura Bijnsdorp and Riddhi Samtani. As part of the project, several neighbourhood clean-ups, data collection on littering habits (including surveys), as well as workshops and educational excursions for young people to become ambassadors, were executed, with the goal to identify sustainable steps towards reducing litter.
“Community leaders, residents, and other stakeholders in neighbourhoods were key in identifying clean-up areas and assisting with surveys to identify littering challenges and behaviours. The stakeholders also identified an area in their neighbourhood that could use anti-littering signage and/or a bin,” explain EPIC project coordinators.
EPIC’s Board would like to thank the many stakeholders that assisted during this project for their commitment to a cleaner environment. “Meadowlands has also been a key partner in successfully executing several of EPIC’s projects over the past years,” the board said.
Other neighbourhoods that will receive signage and/or bins include: Cay Hill, South Reward, Simpson Bay, Cole Bay, Belvedere, Cay Bay, Belair, Dutch Quarter and Philipsburg. The signage is printed and installed by LIVVIT.
Information and updates on EPIC and its ongoing projects can be found on EPIC’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/epicislands. For more information or inquiries into collaborations, please contact EPIC at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
EPIC St. Maarten is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 with the mission of protecting the Caribbean environment through research and community-based action on St. Maarten. This project, “Why do we litter – St. Maarten?”, is funded by the Government of the Netherlands under the St. Maarten Trust Fund, implemented by R4CR, administered by VNGI, and overseen by The WorldBank. For more information about EPIC’s work visit: www.epicislands.org.
