PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — Over the next few weeks, anti-littering signage will be placed in ten neighborhoods on Sint Maarten by Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC), assisted by community partners, and funded by Resources for Community Resilience (R4CR).
Yesterday, the first signs and a bin were placed alongside Maho beach. This was done 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 Sint Maarten clean,” explains officer Boyrard.
The initiative is part of EPIC’s ‘Why do we litter? – Sint Maarten’ project coordinated by Laura Bijnsdorp & Riddhi Samtani. As part of the project, several neighborhood cleanups, 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 neighborhoods were key in identifying cleanup areas and assisting with surveys to identify littering challenges and behaviors. The stakeholders also identified an area in their neighborhood 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.” Other neighborhoods 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 projects@epicislands.org or epicsxm@epicislands.org.
EPIC Sint Maarten is a non-profit organisation founded in 2007 with the mission of protecting the Caribbean environment through research and community-based action on Sint Maarten. This project, “Why do we litter – Sint Maarten?”, is funded by the Government of the Netherlands under the Sint Maarten Trustfund, implemented by R4CR, administered by VNGI, and overseen by The WorldBank. For more information about EPIC’s work visit: www.epicislands.org.
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