More community recycling points open: Student Bodine Beentjes shows the way
POSTED: 10/13/15 3:51 PM
St. Maarten – Minister Connor officially opened two Community Recycling Points on Saturday. After the Minister opened a similar facility in Tamarind Hill in March this year, Learning Unlimited 12th grade student Bodine Beentjes, continued her recycling efforts by organizing the installation of separated garbage collection points in Dawn Beach Estates and Ocean View Terrace.
Bodine stressed the importance of recycling certain types of garbage instead of taking all to the land fill. According to her, plastic, glass bottles, aluminum cans and carton should be separated, and shipped abroad for further processing. This part of the process is done by St. Maarten Recycling.
Currently, the main source of business for St. Maarten Recycling is with the cruise ships. According to Bodine these ships produce a ton of recyclable materials every day, collection of which is done by St. Maarten Recycling. Thanks to that, smaller projects like these, can be incorporated in the process.
More separated garbage facilities are expected to be established in the near future.
Together with the President of the Learning Unlimited Green Team, Maxime Lee, Bodine brought the recycling process also into the school. Most important part of this, she states, is the fact that younger children will be educated in the recycling of garbage.
But, projects like these will only work when residents of St. Maarten start the process themselves at home, at school and at work. Only in working together we can make this a success.
Before opening the facility Minister Connor stated that he would like to see more such residential separated garbage points in place all over the island. He will look into suitable locations in various neighborhoods and work together with Bodine in implementing similar facilities.
He further said that on this special date, October 10, St. Maarten has been an independent country within the Dutch Kingdom for five years. Despite all turmoil of the last days, wonderful things are happening as these efforts of Bodine show. It can take one person to make a change in the world, he said, and that is what she is doing. Minister Connor thanked Bodine sincerely and said he looks forward to keep hearing about her efforts in making St. Maarten a cleaner and more beautiful place.
