Page 22 - AHATA

A14 LOCAL
Monday 30 april 2018

Plastic Recycling Project at the University of Aruba

ORANJESTAD - It was at the come up with innovative bin with 8 plates was made
University of Aruba in the solutions for certain envi- with 320 plastic bottles. The
Academic Foundation Year ronmental issues. border for each plate was
program that a couple of M.A.G.E.C. is a club consist- made with approximately
students were inspired by ing of 13 dedicated mem- 26 bottle caps. Therefore,
the course: Introduction to bers who share the same for the whole bin that
Earth and Environment, to vision and within in five would be 208 bottle caps.
make a change. months we have accom- This was excluding the top,
plished great things that bottom and extra fillings to
This class made the students have made a difference stick the borders together.
more aware about the for the environment and There are five bins that will
damage that is being done community of Aruba. be placed around the uni-
to our planet and how im- versity campus. Three bins
mense these problem are To mention them: are of the official design
world wide. With these ● We have organized a ticipated in this project. for the competition. and two are temporary
concerns in mind, a new successful coastal cleanup ● We helped AHATA with ● We were granted the bins that were made differ-
non-profit student organi- at Dunes beach, where their campamento project opportunity to have a ently with HDPE plastic. The
zation called M.A.G.E.C. we collected over 200 kilo- 2018 that brought aware- M.A.G.E.C. representative plan is to engage Univer-
was formed. M.A.G.E.C. grams of waste. ness to the campers to on the AHATA’s Environ- sity students in our project
stands for Making Aruba a ● We volunteered for Plas- keep their campsite clean. mental Committee by getting them to recycle
Greener Environment Club. tic Beach Party during the The members of M.A.G.E.C. ● We volunteered for Aru- their plastic. From this col-
The organization strives for carnival period asking the helped by asking the ba Doet in collaboration lected plastic we plan to
a more sustainable Aruba public to participate in re- campers for their participa- with the University of Aruba, replace the temporary bins
by organizing events and cycling their plastic used tion in this project and we were we had created an with official ones.
working on new ideas to during the parades. Ap- also got the opportunity to edible garden for St. Domi- We are grateful to Plastic
raise awareness and to proximately 70 kavels par- be a part of the examiners nicus College Elementary Beach Party for helping us
school. on our journey and always
Our biggest project to date keeping their door open to
has been our recycling us. We would also like to
project at the University of thank the University of Aru-
Aruba. ba. When we approached
While working with Plastic the university of Aruba with
Beach Party we were intro- our proposal, they were
duced to the process of re- very excited and offered to
cycling plastic. always help us whichever
Because of this M.A.G.E.C. way possible.
thought of the idea to im- We are appreciative of Ms.
plement plastic recycling Charisse Hoen has helped
bins on the campus of the us with planning the launch
University of Aruba. The day and guided us in the
idea was to create bins process of marketing. We
composed 100% of recy- would also like to give
cled plastic with the help a special thanks to Mr.
of the equipment at Plastic Giovanni Lew Jen Tai who
Beach Party. After creating has recently been appoint-
several samples, we creat- ed as one of M.A.G.E.C.’s
ed our final official design advisors, and who has al-
that consisted of: ways gone the extra mile
- Eight plates of PET plastic for us.
(type 1) from plastic bottles We hope that this project
for example. will be a success. Our goal
- A border around the is to demonstrate to other
plates and a top and bot- schools and organizations
tom that consisted of HDPE that they can recycle and
plastic (type 2) from plastic make something beautiful.
bottle caps for example. However, our grand goal is
Each bin took approxi- to inspire as many people
mately 48 hours to produce. as possible to implement it
Each plate was made from in their lifestyle.
an estimated 40 plastic If you believe it you will
bottles. Therefore, each achieve it.q