Once upon a time there was a minister in charge of the local dump and in an attempt to reduce the volume of trash in the Parkitenbos landfill he approached the makers of automated greenhouse and nursery equipment, from Tennessee, or perhaps they approached him, to purchase FLUFF MAKERS, “designed to convert baled or compressed materials into usable media ready for potting.” In other words, in his great wisdom, he decided to apply an unproven technology to the island’s trash challenge, and signed his name on the dotted line committing the island to the investment.
That happened ten years ago, under the yellow party flag.
The plan which reportedly cost 28 million florins never worked well. The machinery did not separate the trash, and did not remove any contaminants from the mess; it just changed the consistency of the material. Of the three lines installed, only one managed to work part time, blowing fluff all over the place. Then the government changed its flag to green and the yellow-tinted plant and plan were abandoned.
Because that’s how it works here: Yellow government handles yellow-colored projects. Green government only favors green-hued projects, and turns its nose on others. As you know, the colors don’t mix!
And that’s exactly why the current MinInfra has been dragging his heels on the last payment of 1.8 million florins, owed to Bouldin & Lawson, the American manufacturers of the famous fluff machines, and this week the court reiterated, that the money was due, and that government color or mind changes did not matter.
B&L delivered what they promised. The fact that it did not work well had nothing to do with them, because they delivered exactly what Booshi Wever bought; I guess he believed he could eat soup with a fork!
So the ten year old case of a wasted waste processing plant that never worked made headlines again this week. And some politician attempted to link that debacle to the EcoTech and EcoGas projects, which are totally unrelated, because they are 100% privately funded, and have nothing to do with fluff.
Bottom line, Bouldin & Lawson, the garden and nursery experts that were hired to reduce Aruba’s garbage volume, must be paid, and if it weren’t for the stubbornness and false pride of the officials we could be making fluff right now.
