A new awareness campaign titled "Why do we litter? - Sint Maarten" was kicked off in May by Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) Sint Maarten Foundation and includes more than a dozen neighborhood clean-up events during 2022. With the collected data the researchers aim to formulate sustainable and actionable follow-up steps to prevent litter on the island.

EPIC St. Maarten is an independent non-profit organization founded in 2007 with the mission of protecting the Caribbean environment through research and community-based action on Sint Maarten. The new campaign will be executed in the coming months and will focus on collecting data on St.Maarten residents' littering habits.

"The aim of this project is to collect insights, opinions, and ideas from various litter-affected neighborhoods," project coordinators Riddhi Samtani and Laura Bijnsdorp explained. With the collected data the researchers aim to formulate sustainable and actionable follow-up steps to prevent litter on the island.

In addition, sever students will assist in the execution of this project and be trained as "EPIC ambassadors." The selected students will receive workshops on environmental topics and data collection and will attend a first aid course.

"Why do we litter — St. Maarten" is funded by the Government of the Netherlands under the St.Maarten Trust Funded, implemented by Resources for Community Resilience, R4CR, administered by the Association of Netherlands Municipalities VNGI, and overseen by the World Bank.

Future announcements about this project, student application and clean-up dates will be posted on EPIC's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/epicislands. Project coordinators can be reached at projects@epicislands.org for inquiries and collaboration. For more information about EPIC's work, visit www.epicislands.org