Dear Source:
The Environmental Association St. Thomas-St. John www.eastvi.org urges that our lawmakers seek possible legislative remedies against plastic bags and other waste materials that can harm our environment and our health. A few of our members reported to us that many of our marine animals frequently ingest plastic bags accidentally. A recent United Nations Environmental Program report backs that up and estimated approximately 95 percent of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jelly fish and digest them mistakenly.
During the next two weekends, we offer to our members and potential members, a chance to see and experience the ocean on our annual whale watches (February 23 and March 2) on board the Spirit of St. Christopher catamaran. We educate our guests on the annual migration of these magnificent cetaceans as well as visit coves to better understand the interrelationship that we have with our marine life, including dolphins and sea turtles and how also to protect our threatened coral reefs.
Also in our discussion we ask them to spread the word about recycling and composting in the VI and how they can join us in the battle to help our environment. One item of discussion comes up constantly: what we are doing to reduce the number of plastic bottles, bags and general trash from entering our waters and shorelines? We hold many clean up events like our recent coastal cleanup in Frenchtown, but these are not solutions to the root problem.
In our view, there are many ways to tackle our plastic bags disposal problems such as with bans on single-use carryout bags, charges for single-use carryout bags, second generation plastic bag bans (including charge on paper and reusable) or credits for bags supplied by the customer.
While it is up to the our lawmakers to seek legal remedies , it is really up to all of us to reduce or to better yet, eliminate the need for using use of non-re-useable single use bags in the first place.
We applaud the VI Park Service for banning smoking on park beaches and urge that all of our beaches in the territory consider doing the same. Toxic cigarette butts and other tobacco byproducts directly onto our beaches create a hazard to park marine life. Just as with plastics, birds and marine animals can ingest cigarette butts leading to choking, poisoning and/or death. The plastic and toxic chemicals found in cigarette butts can leach quickly into the marine environment with water and over time this leads to the “bioaccumulation” of toxins from cigarette litter that is ultimately passed up the food chain.
Littered cigarette butts can take from two to 25 years to breakdown as toxic chemical compounds are continuously leaching into the environment. Plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to break down. And of course smoking and smoking debris pose a second-hand smoke hazard on the beach and elsewhere. After seeking input from the public, the V.I. National Park announced in early February the prohibition of smoking and tobacco use on all park beaches and within 50 feet of the waterline in both directions.
Jason Budsan, St. Thomas
