Energy from Waste Proposed For Sint Maarten

For years the landfill at Pond Island has been the official dumping place for nearly all the waste streams produced in St. Maarten. The explosive growth of the local population and the tourist industry has brought an increase in most of the waste streams (e.g. constructionand demolition -, household -, commercial waste). The disposal of garbage was going on with limited control and management. Due to hurricane Luis in 1995 the limited space led to a critical situation at the landfill. Plans were designed for remodeling and reorganizing the dumpsite including a containment dyke around the waste dump area. These plans were executed in 1998. The highest level of the landfill is approximately 12.00 meters + SMP. The finished parts of the landfill (waste dump) are covered with a layer consisting of a mixture of sand and silt.

See aerial photos of current dumpsite and surroundings in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten's capital:

After the completion of these works the management of the landfill was outsourced to a private company. The landfill is since then better-controlled and all entering trucks are registered including the type and estimated volume of the waste. Since the remodelling of the waste dump in 1998 it is known that the capacity of this dumpsite is limited. Only a few years are left for the dump to reach its maximum capacity. Further expansion of the dump is not possible in light of maintaining a minimum water surface in the pond for its buffer function during heavy rains and hurricanes.

The need to start with a sustainable solution has become very critical and urgent. This project, focusing on a long-term solution, consists of the building of installations to process the different waste streams that arrive at Pond Island. The main goal of this project is to start the processing of waste in an environmental safe and sound way. The Government wants to bring a sustainable and long-term solution for the waste problems of St. Maarten by contracting a party to Design, finance, build, own, operate, and transfer a solid waste management processing facility at Pond Island. Currently nearly all of the waste streams are being disposed in the landfill. The Government is looking for a minimum 95% reduction of the disposal of all the waste streams into the landfill.

An advisory committee was installed by the Executive Council in May 2008 to coordinate the tender procedure for the project and advise the council on selection of the most favourable proposal. Based on its findings and some additional information requested from the selected proponent, the advisory committee will give its final advice with regard to the selected system in the coming weeks.