Student Bodine Beentjes with her can catcher on top of Naked Boy Hill. Photo contributed
St. Maarten News – Learning Unlimited student Bodine Beentjes introduced the first locally made can catcher on the Melford Hazel Road, on top of Naked Boy Hill, on Sunday.
The can catcher (….you can catch…..like playing basket ball) is a diagonal installed road side garbage bin (which are common in many European countries), to make it easier for road users to discard of their garbage, rather than throw it on the road side and thereby littering the country.
The first can catcher is – besides a practical instrument to discard road user garbage – an art work designed by Bodine Beentjes.
“The very large bin is standing on a small pole, which is planted in mother Earth. The weight of the bin hangs on a chain, which is connected to a gallows like structure. The question every by-passer should ask themselves, how much garbage can the bin hold, until the chain snatches and the bin with all its contents drops on mother Earth. It is all symbolic, but the truth is that garbage has a huge impact on our planet and on our own livelihood,” Beentjes said in a press statement.
With this first can catcher, Beentjes wants to draw the attention from the public and the government to the problem of road side littering. The road sides in many places in Sint Maarten are littered with hundreds of empty bottles, cans and Styrofoam boxes. “Road side garbage has a very negative effect on everyone’s livelihood and the St. Maarten experience of tourists,” the student says. “Road side littering is punishable by law and it should be strictly enforced.”
Beentjes is now asking local companies to sponsor one or more can catchers. They will be of a different type and could be painted by students in the sponsoring company’s colors. Sponsoring will include, purchase, installation and frequent pickup of the can catcher contents.
Last year Beentjes introduced the first neighborhood community recycling stations on the island with the aim of reducing waste and lower the country’s impact on the environment.
For information, contact the student via bodine.beentjes98@gmail.com
Student creates can catcher – road side garbage bin
