For Spring Break vacation, my family and I left New York and traveled to Aruba. We were told by many of our friends that Aruba was a travel destination. When we landed in Aruba, it was extremely hot and windy compared to the cold New York weather which was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. My family and I were driven to our hotel and on our way, we saw a desert like landscape that was laced with plastic bags, bottles, and other littered products. This was not what we were expecting to see from the “Happy Island”. When my family and I arrived at our hotel, my brother and I were thrilled to go swimming. Once we finished checking in to our room, my brother and I immediately sprinted for the beach. The beach had turquoise blue water and a white sand beach, but what bothered us, were the things that were under the water. As I waded around in the water, I was poked by something sharp. Thinking it was a sea shell or piece of coral, I grabbed the object and to my surprise, it was a broken plastic cup! Throughout the day my brother and I found five more cups that were most likely from our own hotel and disposed of them. A problem with many of the hotels on the beach strip is that there were not many garbage cans to throw out garbage. This was a problem because at many of the palapas, people left their garbage in the sand and hoped the next person would pick it up for them. During our stay, my family and ate many restaurants. In these restaurants, such as buffets, there was also lots of food being wasted. During one night, I saw a family of four leave there table as if they did not even touch the food on their plates. In order to fix this problem, the wasted food could be recycled like the food from the Las Vegas strip. In Vegas, top hotels send their wasted food to R.C. Farms which recycles the food in order to create pig food. The food is completely safe for the pigs because it is sanitized and not filled with GMOs or other chemicals. Aruba can also use some sort of farming system to cut down cost of importing food from other countries. While staying in Aruba, many locals talked about how the oil refineries will be operational after a 4 year shut down. These refineries will cause a major environmental hazard. Oil refineries can cause oil spills and emits harmful substances into the atmosphere. An alternative energy source that can be used is wind or solar power. Because the island of Aruba is very windy, much of the open desert environment could be used for wind turbines and solar panels. This will create an eco-friendly energy source while also saving the Island from paying for imported oil.