The announcement that at least some garbage sorting has begun at the landfill on Pond Island (see Thursday paper) is good news. Many have complained of the untenable situation regarding what is popularly known as the dump over the years, but actually doing something about it is a whole other story.
Mind you, what’s currently happening alone isn’t going to address the entire problem either. The sheer amount of trash coming in on a daily basis and already deposited at the ever-growing “trash mountain” near Philipsburg will require much more.
Plans still include a waste-to-energy facility that has been under discussion for several decades now and for which yet another agreement was recently signed. The Canada-based company involved is said to be coming here soon for discussions with GEBE on moving things forward.
The latter is crucial. This newspaper has always maintained that even thinking about such a project without getting the local utilities provider fully on board makes little sense. After all, it is the Government-owned company which must buy the electricity to be produced in the first place.
The Social Economic Council earlier this year advised a similar approach to that of the French side focused on reducing, recycling and reusing. That would be less burdensome to taxpayers in light of the US $115 million price tag for such a plant quoted in 2010.
Proper collection and separation of garbage can indeed make big difference in the ultimate cost of processing it. However, it’s also true that the investment to be made should in principle be earned back with the energy sold.
Important is having watertight contracts regarding volume, stable supply and tariffs to ensure that these potential issues don’t end up being detrimental for St. Maarten and its tourism economy later. Nobody said finding a solution to this pressing problem would be easy, but it’s certainly long overdue and badly needed, so one has to start somewhere.
