Tuesday, September 09, 2008

STINAPA Distributes Used-Battery Receptacles at All Bonaire Dive Centers

As part of STINAPA’s ongoing efforts to celebrate The Year of the Reef, they have recently distributed receptacles for old batteries at each dive center on Bonaire, in the hope of keeping such batteries out of Bonaire’s landfill facilities.

Since the group which uses the most batteries are Bonaire’s visiting divers, it’s makes sense to have the receptacles at each dive center, and it will make it easy for visiting divers to dispose of their used batteries properly.

At this time, Bonaire does not have a system in place for disposing of toxic trash.  Each year, more than 100,000 batteries end up in the island’s landfill.  This is more than 2,700 kilos of toxic materials, and these batteries can leak toxic chemicals into the earth, and finally they will leach into the sea and the island’s ground water.

STINAPA Bonaire is joined by WNF Hulanda, Selibon, and TCB in launching this campaign to educate visitors who may have a high use for batteries.  Click here to read a prior story about another recently launched conservation effort by STINAPA. (Source:  STINAPA)