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Published On: Fri, May 24th, 2019

Asking the right question

Hilbert Haar is on point with his opinion piece about the question whether members of Parliament have a hidden agenda when it comes to solving the problem of our mounting garbage dump. The question we have is why aren’t other waste management solutions being considered, tested or tried?

Reduce Re-Use Recycle InfographicA SER advice focuses on waste minimization (reduce), re-use and recycling. This is in cooperation with the French side. Despite several proposals for test projects for recycling initiatives, the support for the Envirogreen’s proposed waste-to-energy facility seems to be as vicious as it is passionate.

To some it seems a bit scary the intensity of the support to have this project materialize. Also taking into consideration the self-assured confidence of the Envirogreen Energy team during their presentation in Parliament. Some even question to what extent were they prepped beforehand. They knew all the right buzz words to use that would impress our esteemed members of Parliament: jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs.

In light of the obvious support displayed in Parliament for the Envirogreen proposal, any other entrepreneur with plans to propose an alternative would be seriously challenged to go up against this wall of support. Given the stakes involved, it can be expected that interference from third parties would be not be taken lightly.

There are already other companies actively operating in the field of recycling. Why aren’t any of these options being explored as a test solution before entering into a definite multi-million dollar deal with a company that has absolutely no track record in this field.

St. Maarten does not on it’s own produce sufficient garbage – no stats available to back this claim up – but even in collaboration with the surrounding islands St. Maarten would still be hard pressed to come up with enough garbage for this WTE facility. Therefore, the fear is poignant that St. Maarten would have to be turned into the latest dumping site for First World Countries, with Canada being one of the leaders in this practice, if one is to believe the complaints coming from such countries like China and Malaysia.

Just as quickly as the MOU with Envirogreeen Energy was signed by the former minister of VROMI, it would not be surprising if pressure is placed on the present minister of VROMI to sign off on a WTE deal with Envirogreen Energy. In any event, if this was to happen, the good gentlemen of Envirogreen would be the real heroes to their country Canada, a country urgently in search of and therefore will give no obstruction to finding a new dumpsite for their country’s waste. Maybe this could be the real hidden agenda Hilbert Haar was referring to. We definitely need to be asking the right questions.

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Opinion piece “Hidden agenda” by Hilbert Haar
Government studies alternatives for waste-to-energy plant for dump
Opinion piece “Hidden agenda” by Hilbert Haar