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Volume 1 No. 7 June 2013

Saving The Planet……… My Way!

Recycling in the Virgin Islands. Or not.

This month we took an Island Paradise vacation, spending time in the the USVI and BVI.

Beautiful, warm, sunny, fun. Perfect vacation!

We arrived at the house we rented late on a Saturday night. The property managers showed us around and we asked questions. I kept waiting for directions on where to put the recycling. I knew there would be a lot throughout the week. Especially with the beverages we had purchased!

Finally, someone asked where the recycling bins were kept.

The answer was not what any of us wanted to hear. “We don’t recycle”.

We were all tired and didn’t ask a lot of questions but throughout the week we were able to find out a little more about recycling on the islands. Some do, some don’t. Some do sometimes. Some do at isolated locations.

My joke for the week was that I was going to move to St. Thomas and start up recycling program. Unfortunately it was a joke………. Maybe.

Since we’ve been back I have done a little research. There’s not a lot of readily available but I believe the bottom line is, recycling is not profitable. Or even affordable.

The number of tourist to the islands increase every year. This relates to more trash each year. The islands cannot afford to have it hauled off and if they processed the recycling on the island itself, the distance to ship to other destinies would be prohibitive.

So what’s the solution? I don’t have an answer. It seems that we ALL could focus more on REUSE.

I appreciated the beauty of the islands very much and if there is something I can do to help, I will do it!

Below are a couple photos of our Island Paradise Vacation….