News item | 21-11-2025 | 09:00
The Selibon Lagun landfill on Bonaire must be closed permanently at the end of 2028 and the Executive Council of Bonaire will make sufficient money available in 2025 and 2026 for healthy business operations. To address the most urgent risks to public health, nature and the environment, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations will support Bonaire.
These agreements are contained in an agreement signed today between the Executive Council of Bonaire and State Secretary Eddie van Marum of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. In this way, Bonaire and the Netherlands are working together on a better and healthier waste processing chain.
The problems at the Selibon Lagun landfill have arisen over the past decades. Resolving the situation at Selibon therefore requires a major effort from all parties. The most recent report from the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) shows that the situation is still worrying and complex. ILT has determined that supervision and enforcement must be tightened. The Executive Council is supported in this by the Netherlands Environment Agency. A temporary fence or camera surveillance prevents unauthorized persons from entering the site. In time, a permanent fence will be built around the site.
A new landfill area is being set up that meets the applicable environmental standards. The government aims to contribute to the first measures at the landfill in the short term. To enable Selibon to carry out the work properly, the Executive Council will allocate money this and next year for the purchase of covering material, landfill machines and collection trucks. This amounts to €6.1 million in total. In addition, the Executive Council will determine cost-effective rates for waste collection and waste processing for companies and private individuals before January 1, 2027. By January 1, 2026 at the latest, the Executive Council will present a plan that incorporates all recommendations from the latest ILT report.
In addition to the short-term measures to solve the most urgent problems, agreements have also been made for long-term improvements. A long-term perspective for waste processing on Bonaire is being developed. Part of this is the search for an alternative location and early closure of Selibon Lagun; no later than December 1, 2028 instead of 2030. The Executive Council will decide on an alternative location for waste processing and the measures required for this no later than July 1, 2026.
Deputy Clark Abraham was the signatory on behalf of Bonaire: “With the early closure of the landfill, we are meeting a major wish of residents of Lagun. I am pleased that with these agreements we can improve the well-being of local residents and employees of Selibon Lagun, the physical environment and the residents of Bonaire within the foreseeable future. It is also good that the cabinet supports the recommendations of, among others, the Council for the Environment, that financing is needed on a structural basis for investments and maintenance of the island infrastructure.”
State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations Eddie van Marum: “We have been able to make firm agreements about the future of the waste dump on Bonaire. I am grateful to the Executive Council for the fact that they are taking responsibility for a complex problem that has arisen in recent decades. In this way, the Executive Council is working on visible and noticeable results for the residents of Bonaire.”