Each year, volunteers from across our island communities come together for the annual Great Mangrove Clean-Up, a hands-on effort to restore and protect one of our Virgin Islands’ most vital ecosystems. Yet what they continue to find, in overwhelming numbers, are discarded plastic water bottles—by far the most common type of waste recovered.
This troubling fact, documented in recent reports by Dr. Kristin W. Grimes, Director of the Virgin Islands Water Resources Institute at the University of the Virgin Islands, should prompt immediate and serious reflection. More importantly, it should spur action! Since 2018 11,655 single use plastic bottles have been collected. Plastic bottles also are the number one item removed in the Territory’s Coastweeks clean-ups coordinated by The Ocean Conservancy that happen every fall.
I urge the Legislature of the Virgin Islands to adopt a law prohibiting the sale of water in plastic bottles on public streets. Such a policy would not ban bottled water outright, nor would it penalize individuals who carry their own or sell bottled water together with other food. It would simply prevent the open-air sale of one of the most frequently littered and environmentally harmful items in our Territory.
The goal is not to inconvenience—it is to protect. Mangroves serve as crucial buffers against erosion, provide shelter for juvenile fish, and improve coastal water quality. Their degradation by plastic pollution is unacceptable, especially when solutions are within reach.
Some may point out that youth groups and nonprofits often rely on bottled water sales at community events as a source of revenue. But even that concern has a creative and community-based solution. “Instead of non-profit groups having our youth sell water in plastic bottles, local organizations such as the Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise are willing to contribute to these same non-profit groups if they in turn participate in environmental restoration projects such as the Mangrove Clean-Up,” said Jeni Smith, Project Coordinator for the Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise. “I believe with sponsors these groups would make more money for their non-profits than selling water in plastic bottles.”
This is the kind of forward-thinking initiative our community needs—one that supports both the environment and the financial health of our youth programs.
Legislation of this kind is not unprecedented. Municipalities throughout the United States mainland, as well as island nations abroad, have enacted similar bans with great success. The result? Cleaner coastlines, increased use of reusable bottles, and a stronger public commitment to sustainability. There is no reason why the U.S. Virgin Islands should not lead by example. If we can do it for plastic straws, we most assuredly can do it for plastic water bottles!
We cannot continue to treat single-use plastic bottles as an acceptable convenience when they pose a persistent threat to our natural environment. As stewards of these islands, we have a responsibility to act.
To the lawmakers of the Virgin Islands: ban the sale of plastic water bottles on our public streets. Our mangroves, marine life, and future generations of Virgin Islanders are depending on your leadership!
Tom Bolt – St. Thomas, VI
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