For most of us, travel to a beautiful Caribbean island is a life’s dream, something for which we save, for which we plan. We want it to be perfect, that island scene from the movies: clean white sands, beautiful turquoise waters teeming with life, a tropical drink and a sunset adding some color.

We are so caught up in this dream that we don’t realize all of the challenges that an island like Sint Maarten, popular with tourists, has in keeping that sand clean and that water beautiful. We don’t think about issues like water, power, or trash, things that small islands can struggle with. But all of these efforts affect our travel experiences, and we in turn affect them.

I am far from a zero-footprint traveler. But as I’ve spent more time traveling, being as sustainable as I can while still having the experience I desire has become a goal. Today, I want to take some time to talk about issues around travel and sustainability as seen from this incredible place, Sint Maarten, that I love. To do so, I’ve been lucky enough to speak with two amazing organizations that do the daily work to help: EPIC and Nature Foundation Sint Maarten.

To say that Nature Foundation Sint Maarten does nearly everything would almost be an understatement. With minimal – sadly – funding from both governmental and philanthropic sources, the organization is involved in things ranging from invasive species management to permitting for the marine parks, import/export control (when it comes to living things), environmental education (and teacher training in biology), endangered species protection, fisheries, and more! It’s overwhelming.

Leslie is the executive director, and talks to me about the challenges of such a wide range of sustainability activities, beyond the issues of funding and staffing. One of the organization’s biggest projects to this point has been the coastal resilience needs assessment, but she says that while this has given specific needs facing the island’s coral, sea grass, and mangroves, the problems go further than that. It is an issue of protections. Mangroves, for instance, are not protected at all, according to Leslie. And while coral reefs are, that only really deals with deliberate destruction, not inadvertent damage due to human activity.

She acknowledges that the island has come a long way, but has a longer way yet to go. Monitoring for sea turtle nesting is a good example. With so many beaches being resort fronts, protecting sea turtle nesting sites – and even monitoring them – takes more people and effort than she has.

That’s where WE can come in.

I ask Leslie what tourists can do to help. She says that if we are going to the beach anyway – and we probably are – look for turtle tracks. If you see them, say something to your hotel and have them call Nature Foundation Sint Maarten. Just that one act could save literally dozens of baby turtles!

Perpetual Plastics, part of the EPIC Foundation, has a simpler mission than Nature Foundation Sint Maarten, but one that is no less important. This small volunteer-run organization is responsible for the recycling of plastics done in Sint Maarten. Their Perpetual Plastics center accepts plastics (numbers 2 and 5, and 4 is in the testing phase), breaks them down, and uses presses and molds to turn them into usable infrastructure (like tables and benches) and souvenirs, which they offer in return for donations.

Fleur, one of the cofounders and volunteers, shows me around, walking me through the process. One of the coolest things about the program, she shares, is that the organization works with locals with disabilities and mental health issues – and their social workers – teaching basic life and job skills and providing a sense of community. So they are doing good in multiple ways at once!

She shares with me that plastics are one of the biggest problems on a small island like this, both from a pollution standpoint (plastic bottles don’t do well with marine ecology) and in terms of landfill space. And unfortunately, the largest use (plastic single use water bottles) can’t be recycled at all.

Again, I ask what we as visitors can do. She says the biggest one is to bring and use reusable water bottles. If we need to purchase bottled water, we can do so in larger bottles that use comparably less plastic, and fill our reusable ones from those, but with tap water here safe to drink, even that isn’t necessary. Beyond that, we can ask our hotels to participate voluntarily in EPIC’s recycling programs, or to bring our own qualifying plastics (even though those water bottles aren’t recyclable, the caps are!) to Perpetual Plastics ourselves. (I do on my way to the airport, as it is barely three minutes out of my way.) You can also volunteer for a more hands-on experience.

Sustainability challenges on an island go beyond these things, and both Fleur and Leslie talk to me about some of those. Water is provided through desalination. But that takes a lot of power, as does the consistent use of air conditioning. The issue of power production is one that tourism exacerbates. The same goes for traffic. One solution? Spread our trips out.

Sint Maarten’s peak season is from November to March. I’ve now been twice, once in June and once in September. By coming during these off-peak times, I am minimizing my impact – and making the experience more pleasant for myself. I sit in less traffic, get easier access to reservations, and have more of the locals’ famed friendliness for myself!

What else can we do? Well, we can do our best to give our tourism dollars to businesses (hotels especially) that take sustainability more seriously. We can decline daily housekeeping, or at least reuse our towels. We can turn off our AC when we leave our rooms. We can order tap water instead of bottled (or more mixed drinks!), and do our best to recycle what we can. It all helps.

So come to Sint Maarten. Absolutely, come. But when you do, keep in mind that we as tourists have an impact that goes beyond what we can easily see. And we can – and should – do a bit more to minimize that, leaving this insanely amazing place better than we found it. We can donate to these two terrific organizations. We can volunteer. We can try to encourage hotels and restaurants to recycle. We can watch for turtle tracks.

And we can make sure that the dream Caribbean vacation remains for generations to come.

Thank you to both of these amazing organizations for taking the time to meet with me. And thank you to Visit St. Maarten for hosting my trip!

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