SINT MAARTEN (COLE BAY) - The Nature Foundation organized a beach cleanup at Mullet Bay Beach on the 18th of April in order to kick off their new project to encourage residents and visitors to ‘Reduce and Reuse’ their plastic output.

About 15 volunteers removed 294 pounds of trash from the beach, using the Trash Tracker method developed by Ocean Cleanup Organization 4Oceans by weighing all the collected trash and using reusable bags and gloves.

Waste collected during the cleanup has been documented and will be used as research information to encourage local restaurants, residents and visitors to go plastic-free.

St Maarten has major waste problems due to poor waste management, frequent toxic landfill fires, no waste separation and no recycling. The ineffective disposal of waste causes grave concerns regarding public health, air pollution, and water and soil contamination.

Research has also shown that St Maarten has the highest municipal solid waste of the Caribbean at 9.7 kg per capita per day, compared to Curacao’s waste generation of 0.44 kg. Littering and the use of single use plastics is widely accepted on the island, causing garbage to lay around and plastic trash to end up in our oceans, impacting and affecting our environment, corals, fish, birds and wildlife.

As a nonprofit and non-governmental organization focused on protecting nature and environment on St Maarten, the Nature Foundation wants to make steps to reduce single use plastics and littering, and promote biodegradable and reusable products to address the waste problem.

The ‘Reduce & Reuse St Maarten’ project is designed to teach and encourage residents, children and establishments to reduce their waste output and clean-up the environment.

The use of Styrofoam, plastic cups and cutlery, plastic straws and single use plastic bags is very common and is handed out without discouragement or a fee: this project will try to change that and stimulate a switch to biodegradable and reusable products.

The new project will be also pushing for the plastic bag ban, something the Nature Foundation has been requesting for a long period. The need of more garbage bins around the island, beaches and during events will be addressed as well, at the moment the shortage of bins provides excuses to litter and leave your trash behind.

There is a renewed momentum on the island concerning not using single use plastics anymore. Various establishments are going plastic free, including many restaurants and bars including Buccaneer Beach Bar, The Dinghy Dock and Karakter Beach Bar. We even now have one of the largest hotels, Divi Little Bay, going completely straw free when they reopen.

All of these developments are awesome and we support and encourage them and more businesses to recognize how dangerous plastics are to our health and environment. Hopefully through this new project we can give the necessary support and feedback to make single plastics a thing of the past on the island,” according to the Nature Foundation.

St. Maarten is a beautiful island that attracts millions of visitors from all over the world. The Nature Foundation wants to keep it that way, your help in cleaning up and reducing your plastic waste will go a long way in ensuring the preservation of the beauty we are all so proud of!

SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) – “Dear His Majesty King Willem Alexander, His Excellency the Governor Eugene Holiday, Council of Ministers, Honorable Members of Parliament, State Secretary of Kingdom Affair Raymond Knops, Head of Dutch Recovery Programme Hans Leijtens, Representative of the Netherlands in St. Maarten Chris Johnson, Head of World Bank Mission to St. Maarten Doekle Wielinga,” is the letter from the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA) addressed to the aforementioned on behalf of its membership and the public seeking urgent action regarding the Pond Island Landfill.

“To anybody familiar with Sint Maarten, it is obvious that just like hurricane Irma, the dump affects all the citizens of the island - regardless where you might reside or work.

Although most probably we will only know the real human cost of inhaling fumes from the dump on a daily basis in the future, we need immediate short term action now while a long term plan hopefully is being conceived.

“For several decades now, many talks have been spent on this topic – whereas the problem only seems to become worse. Time has come to acknowledge that those many years of talking has shown we do not have the capacity to remove the dump ourselves but that we need outside help to solve this problem.

“Therefore, it is by this means that we demand for an immediate short term solution to put a stop to the fires and gases killing our society.

“This undoubtedly is our number one problem and should be handled with such urgency.  We ask from the World Bank and the Kingdom to tap into their human and technical resources and take direct control over our sanitary landfill for the good of our people. We do not have the luxury of long term planning and endless meetings, we need action,” the SHTA on behalf of its members and the residents of St. Maarten, said in its open letter on Thursday.

SINT MAARTEN (POND ISLAND) – Acting Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) Cornelius de Weever, says more than eight million tonnes of plastic leaks into the ocean each year – equal to dumping a garbage truck of plastic every minute, according to United Nations (UN) Environment.

Minister De Weever commends Divi Resorts for getting rid of plastic straws at all of its Caribbean resorts on Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, St. Croix, and Sint Maarten.

The aforementioned is part of Divi Resorts green initiative to curb pollution by removing straws from all of its properties.

“As our country builds back better and stronger, there are strong reasons for businesses to operate in a more sustainable manner by reducing ones carbon footprint when it comes to environmental stewardship.

“Sint Maarten as a tourist destination has to step up to the plate. I commend Divi Resorts for taking the initiative of doing away with plastic straws. This should also be explored by other hospitality and tourism driven businesses. Let it be an industry driven approach.

“We all have a responsibility towards our environment and if every business were to take measures it will have a much larger impact on society, on the way we do business on a daily basis in the country, and on our country’s carbon footprint.

“We have natural resources that our tourism-dependent economy depends upon. These natural resources are our beaches, the sea, lagoons, ponds, and our terrestrial areas. Our Nature Foundation sounded the alarm after the Easter-holiday weekend about the amount of garbage that was left behind on our beaches.

“We need to do better, and I appeal to the populace and to the business community to start thinking seriously about our environment and start taking measures to lower our carbon footprint and being more environmentally conscious and responsible,” Minister Cornelius de Weever said on Tuesday.

Each year, tonnes of plastic ends up in the oceans, wreaking havoc on marine wildlife, fisheries and tourism, and costing at least US$8 billion in damage to marine ecosystems.

Up to 80 per cent of all litter in our oceans is made of plastic.

According to some estimates, UN Environment says at the rate we are dumping items such as plastic bottles, bags, cups after a single use, by 2050 oceans will carry more plastic than fish and an estimated 99 per cent of seabirds will have ingested plastic.

SINT MAARTEN (POND ISLAND) – Acting Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) Cornelius de Weever, says the appointment of May-Ling Chun as Interim Director of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau (STB), will benefit the national tourism recovery of the country.

May-Ling is not a newcomer to STB, as she had a stint as director of St. Maarten Tourism Bureau from 2011-2012.

May-Ling holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the John F. Welch School of Business, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, and a Bachelor's Degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management and a Minor in Business from New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, New York, and a HAVO High school diploma from Peter Stuyvesant College.

“I would like to congratulate May-Ling Chun on her appointment as she is well qualified for the job.  At this stage of our country’s post-Irma development, we need to ensure the tourism and travel industry that we have the best and brightest minds at the forefront in order to move our country forward during these very challenging times.

“May-Ling Chun will be working with seasoned staff at STB in continuing to get the message out that we are open for business. To-date STB staff have been doing a wonderful job, and they are well aware what is at stake and what needs to be done.

“We have to keep our industry partners updated on destination developments ensuring more flights return as more of our accommodations reopen.

“In the end, our country will have a better tourism product.  We are on the right track and moving in the right direction.  It will not be easy as we move into the slow season.  It will be challenging, but we all have to contribute to promoting the destination as we bounce back,” Acting Minister of Tourism Affairs Cornelius de Weever said on Monday.     

May-Ling was Manager of the country’s newest accommodation - Commodore Suites, located in the heart of Simpson Bay, and prior to that, May-Ling was involved in a number of projects related to marketing consulting, sales, product development, public relations, human resources, training, product development, business development, extensive market research.  Chun was also Oyster Bay Beach Resort's Director of Operations from 1999 - 2002.

May-Ling has served as second vice president of the executive Board of St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) from 2009 - 2011 and as a board member from 1999 - 2009.

May-Ling is also a board member on the Charlotte Brookson Academy of the Performance Arts; co-founder of the St. Maarten/St. Martin Annual Regional Tradeshow (SMART) and of the annual SHTA Crystal Pineapple Awards.