Recycling Made Easier on St. John!

Good Morning, Good Morning and Happy Fri-YAY!  I don’t know about all of you, but I have had one chaotically busy week and am ready for a little fun in the sun this weekend!  If you have been following along, you’ll probably understand that the recycling program on island is something that I am very passionate about.  When I moved here in 2012, I was astonished that there was disposable plastic EVERYWHERE and no good way to dispose of it (Wait, no recycling?!?).

Well, here we are, ten years later, with many businesses on board for making changes to their long time use of #7 plastic cups, Styrofoam to-go containers, straws and plastic bags.  And this year, the team at Island Green Living implemented PLASTIC recycling into their already well-established aluminum can recycling program with the assistance of a partnership with PADNOS.  And NOW, through a partnership with VI Waste Management, dropping off your recycling and being an environmentally responsible visitor and/or resident just got easier!

“We are grateful to WMA for their support and collaboration as well as to Conner Buttermore and David Baum of St. John Concrete for donating slabs to install our recycling containers,” said Harith Wickrema, president of Island Green Living. “This initiative would not be possible without generous donations from the community, the partnership of PADNOS and the dedication of our staff and volunteers.”

So, on St. John, we don’t have the leisure of trash pick up and we all have to take our waste to a bin site.  Correct?  Ok.  Well, now all it takes to recycle your aluminum cans and #1, #2 and #5 plastic waste is bringing a second bag to the bin site!  That’s right, Island Green Living now has FOUR additional recycling drop off sites on St. John.  And all you have to do bag the clean aluminum and plastic waste products in a separate bag when you head to the dumpster.

Ok, so the now five drop off sites on island are as follows:

• ReSource Depot – Located behind the VITEMA building –  immediately after you turn from Centerline onto Gifft Hill Road on the right

• Connections Cruz Bay- Located between Longboard and Tap & Still in the heart of town.

• VIWMA bin site at Gifft Hill- Coming from Centerline Road, this site is just past Gifft Hill School, but before Virgin Grand Estates.

• VIWMA bin site across from EC Service Station (Cruz Bay)
• VIWMA vin site across from Love City Mini Mart (Coral Bay)

Before you rush out to drop your recyclables, here are a few requests from the volunteers and staff who are tasked with sorting the waste so you don’t have to!

• PLEASE, make sure you rinse and clean your items before disposing of them.  It’s easy!  I gently rinse every can and piece of acceptable plastic to be recycled both on the boat and at our house.  If I can handle it on a boat with guests, you can handle it in a villa on vacation 🙂
• Only include aluminum cans and numbers 1, 2 and 5 plastic.  The plastic items to be included should all have a resin number on the bottom that reads the number inside of a small, triangular recycling symbol.  If there is no number, the plastic should not be included in your bag of recyclables.

• Cans and plastics can be commingled for drop off at any of the above sites.

So, as we all know, tasks without habit or convenience sometimes fall to the wayside.  And now, Island Green has made it convenient for all of us to drop off our recycling and easily make a commitment to keeping St. John and our oceans clean and beautiful!

“We are trying to make recycling as easy as possible for the community to maximize participation,” – Kelly McKinney, Executive Director of Island Green Living

The building of the habit is all on us though.  For those of you visiting from the states, it is likely that you are already in the habit of recycling.  However, for long-time island residents, it is going to take some getting used to.  But, trust me when I say, once you get into that habit, stopping to drop off “trash” feels a little bit lighter.  Both figuratively and literally 🙂