WILLEMSTAD – A proposal to introduce a nationwide bottle deposit system in Curaçao is gaining attention after community leader Omar Gill submitted a letter to Curaçao Parliament urging lawmakers to evaluate the idea.
Gill’s proposal centers on creating a general deposit-return system for bottles and cans, linked to a sports and youth development fund. The goal is twofold: reducing litter across the island while generating support for sports programs and youth initiatives.
According to Gill, waste disposal—particularly plastic bottles and cans—has become an increasingly visible problem in neighborhoods, along roads, and in natural areas. He argues that the issue affects not only the environment, but also Curaçao’s image and quality of life.
“Let’s give bottles and cans added value and end the pollution,” Gill wrote in his appeal.
The proposal also highlights growing social challenges on the island, including rising poverty. Gill referred to reports from the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek and the Sociaal-Economische Raad showing that economic hardship continues to affect many families.
He noted that schools, sports organizations, and youth groups increasingly face situations where children cannot participate in sports because they lack basic materials or financial support. As president of a sports center, Gill says he sees these struggles firsthand.
His proposal is inspired by the deposit-return system used in the Netherlands, where consumers can return bottles and cans at supermarkets, schools, or gyms and choose to donate the deposit value to sports or social organizations.
Gill believes a similar model could work in Curaçao, allowing people to return recyclable materials and direct the deposit value into a dedicated sports fund to support youth development and community activities.
In his letter, he specifically calls on Parliament’s IPKO committee to place the issue on the agenda during the next IPKO meeting in June 2026 in the Netherlands. The aim would be to request a knowledge-sharing session on how such a system could be implemented locally.
Gill says Curaçao does not need to reinvent the wheel and can learn from existing Dutch experience.
“With one system, we can contribute to a cleaner island while supporting our sports sector and our youth at the same time,” he said.