Page 13 - ARUBA TODAY

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Plastic Beach Party and Divi Resorts Started Recycling Plastic
ORANJESTAD – With col-
lecting and recycling plas-
tic for one of the largest
hotel groups on the island,
the local organization Plas-
tic Beach Party officially
launched their services.
During the testing phase
108 kilos of plastic was col-
lected and recycled, com-
ing from two of the hotels of
Divi Resorts. The collected
plastic is processed and is
then reused for a variety
of new products. “The suc-
cess of this pilot creates the to protect the environment,
scenario that we will have
more impact in the future
and thus collect more plas-
tic that will be transformed
into sustainable products”,
says Mettes, co-founder of
Plastic Beach Party.
Plastic Wall Tiles
Being a social entrepre-
neurship, Plastic Beach
Party has imported several
machines that cut the plas-
tic and produce the base
material for new plastic
products. The company
uses designs from internet.
“The products we have
chosen for the recycled
material are made in a way
that they are reducing the
‘throw-away-factor’. For
example re-usable cups,
re-usable bins and specific
products like trophies and
wall tiles. But as we create
all products from plastic,
we will also use new tech- model the effort will not be
nologies like 3D printing”, sustainable. Christie, repre-
Mettes informs. sentative of Plastic Beach
Party, mentions that Aruba
6000 Tons of Plastic imported more than 6000
The Divi is the first hotel tons of plastic in 2015 (UN
group that decided to join Comtrade 2016), almost 50
the plastic recycling initia- percent of this was used in
tive. Plastic Beach Party the tourism industry on the
hopes that more hotels will island. At this time, most of
follow, as also families and the plastic ends up in Par-
other companies. Every- kietenbos which is the gar-
body can join to collect bage dump of the island.
and recycle plastic. The pri- There is no partition wall be- “Here we depend on the
ority goal of the company is tween the ocean and the
dump and frequent fires
but without a financial are registered. This causes
Friday 5 January 2018
damage to the environ-
ment as plastic ends up in
the ocean and in the air.
This does not only harm the
mangrove bio-system and
reefs, but overall the quality The hotel chain already
of life and state of health in invested in solar panels, re-
the island. “Plastic is one of cycling of water, re-usable
the biggest problems of our
environment, especially
for the marine life, not only
in Aruba but in the entire
world”, Christie explains.
tourism industry, our beach-
es and our fishing sector. If
we intend to maintain this,
we need to stop with the
consuming cycle of plastic
and process plastic in a re-
sponsible way. We need to
change our way and our
mindset versus plastic. It is
not something you can just
throw away.”
No Plastic Straws
It is not surprising that Divi
Resorts starts joining this re-
cycling initiative as a lead-
er of sustainable tourism.
cups, and no plastic straws
are used within the hotels.
For this the hotel already re-
ceived several certification
awards. Mr. St. Jago, Ener-
gy Manager: “Divi is proud
to be the first hotel on the
island to invest in recycling
plastic. This is an important
step for Aruba’s beaches
and tourism industry. We
hope that many more ho-
tels will follow.”
For more information about
this initiative, please visit
the website www.plastic-
beachparty.com or email
recycle@plasticbeach-
party.com. The project initi-
ated from Brenchie’s Lab,
located at the Academy
of Fine Arts & Design.q