Stimulus package for cleaning up the VI

I would love for recycling to become a reality here, but sadly the funds will just get misused............look at the roads - need I say more!

We already have a recycling program here in the VI...
All we need to do now is to have the govt line the ditches with recycling bins and we're good.

btw... Downtown Csted has been looking real nice the last couple of weeks. Some sort of new initiative?

Greetings to All,
This will be a great job producing opportunity!! The funds to be given for set projects by the stimulus will be monitored and the results of their useage will be available for public scrutiny on the gov. website.
My advice to all you islanders is to make sure to stay plugged-in on the proposed projects. It's good advice for Americans in general. We have to have accountability. This is the time to stick together and see that it happens!
Those beautiful islands need a way to clean-up and this is the chance. Recycling is where it's at. $$$$$-- GOOD for everybody.

STAY POSSITIVE!! Obama is an island boy at heart. You have his ear, don't waste it.

Love your way, Dreamconch

I will be on the island in a little over a month, and am definitely going to get involved in whatever way I can to encourage recycling. I didn't realize there was such a big problem - being surrounded by nature's splendor like you all are down there, it's hard to believe anyone would use the ditch as a recycling bin!

We already have a recycling program here in the VI...quote]

What island are you on?

I am on RAVI steering committee for St. Croix and the only thing there is here is aluminum cans and that is being held up since our distribution center (EZ Recycling) is set back from funds.

Cost You Less has stepped up and provided a bin outside for crushed cardboard as well. It is up to us to get things going, not to say what the govt. needs to do. We need to educate everyone to stop throwing things out the window as they drive down the road. We need to ask our local stores to stop using plastic bags. Hawaii did it! So can we!

 

I proudly recycle. It really gives me a good feeling to see about 75% of my trash go out the door directly to recycling. The recycling man says this is the only house on his route that pre-seperates the trash into paper, plastic, metal and glass, and this makes him very happy as it makes his job easier.

If we all chip in, no matter where we are, we can make a difference on the impact that trash and production of disposable items have on the environment.

Hawaii did it! So can we!

On the north Shore of Hawaii they have bin sites like here. You put all your stuff in different bins, metals, plastics, glass. There is usually a big local sitting in a booth or under a tree making sure you do it . All landscape debris goes into it's own bin to be shredded and composted. The system is very low tech at the collection end. In Honolulu they have different days for trash and recycling.
There are abandoned cars there to. When it is noticed A/V (abandoned vehicle) is spray painted on it then over the next week people stop and take parts then the county comes to haul it away for recycling. I have to go back in May so I'll snap a pic of the bin sites
We can be grateful that we don't have Hawaii's homeless problem here in the V. I They have thousands.

As far as the roadside trash, our problem is enforcement, once a few people get busted for littering or dumping it will be word up.

Hawaii's population is 1.3 million, versus about 100,000 for the combined USVIs. That makes recycling a fiscally feasible option for Hawaii and not for us. The USVI will have to pay to have recyclables hauled away because we don't have (or need) the infrastructure required to use recyclables locally. The only way to do this is to charge consumers for each can and bottle they purchase. This wouldn't be a deposit returned to the consumer when the cans and bottles are recycled, but rather a fee to pay to have the cans and bottles shipped off island. I don't think consumers would be receptive to a fifty cent fee for every bottle in their case of beer, every can in their case of soda, every jar of spaghetti sauce and every jug of water they buy. Recycling only really works when there is sufficient critical mass, and one of the chief features of our islands is that we lack that critical mass.

I just went to St. Barts in November and the first store I went to off the boat for groceries told me they don't give out plastic bags. Their island is small and St. Marteen close by is not big neither. Small steps. We can ask our stores to stop using plastic bags. The class of 2011 at Good Hope wants to have eradicated the use of plastic bags across our island before their class graduates. They have designed several bags for use.

Marlene,

I LOVE your passion and vigor!!!! Keep finding answers and ways to say "yes we can". Maybe not all that should be done can be done but there's a lot that can and I think it's great that you are taking the initiative.

I'm a big dito to all that has been said on this thread. It amazes me the amount of plastic bags used in the VI s. Craziness!

I agree as well that full blow recycling is probably not a realistic option for the islands but finding ways to create less waste is certainly a viable partial solution. And just to plant a seed on the off chance that something might grow. I think it would be a great idea to recycle glass on each island by breaking the glass into pieces and then creating some type of storage bin system in the sea near the shore that would create sea glass over time and then sell it. Glass tiles are all the rage now and everyone likes sea glass. It might even be able to be incorporated into the roads or cement or some other building material. You never know. However if I'm just being idealistic and I've overlook ed some really simple reason why that would work, Please by all means let the bashing begin 😛

well the first thing would be to ban styro foam to go containers,it's always amazed me to see the locals i work with drink and eat off disposable products(styro) while they are at work instead of the reusable glass and china or hard plastic washable items,they just use it once and toss it out,to go cups do not need to be styro,the paper cups work just as well and will break down,so ban plastic grocery bags that every place here on island use and styro products,but i still say use all the stimulus money for a new green WAPA

In an odd way, litter is a sign of relative prosperity. Years & years ago you didn't see litter. People went to the market with baskets, weren't buying take-away, etc. When money becomes more plentiful, waste multiplies.

The easiest thing they could do to encourage recycling is to make the tire disposal fee mandatory. Right now, since it is optional, some tire purchasers decline to pay the fee then take their old tires and just dump them by the side of the road.

Used tires could be ground up and put to use on the island.

Jim

Jim,

Think you are right on that one because I believe I remember seeing some kind of a government open bid for removal of tires from the island, don't remember which one specific but I remember thinking as I was reading the article that it must not be mandated like in the states. Jumping on Marlene's bandwagon again seems like something to look into setting a good system for

Great night all