April 17, 2009 — The St. John chapter of the Recycling Association of the Virgin Islands is talking to two St. Croix concrete companies about handing over ownership of St. John's glass crusher, Recycling Association member Paul Devine said Friday at a V.I. Waste Management Authority meeting.
The companies would then pay to barge glass from both St. Thomas and St. John to St. Croix to be crushed, Devine said. Six to seven tons of crushed glass would go into each concrete batch.
"But it will take $100,000 to get it up and running," Devine said.
St. John's glass crusher was bought in 2001, but no group was ever able to start crushing. It sits in a crate at the Westin Resort and Villa's maintenance area. Devine said the glass crusher needs a conveyor system in order to be used by the concrete companies.
Devine was one of seven St. John residents who showed up for a meeting at Julius E. Sprauve School called by Waste Management to discuss its grant program. The program allocates $50,000 on each island to youth groups, schools and non-profit organizations.
Devine said his organization wants a grant so it can expand its existing aluminum can recycling program. He said the organization needs more bins and wants to make improvements to the way it transports the cans to St. Thomas for recycling. Currently volunteers take them when they're making trips to St. Thomas from St. John.
According to Devine, the territory generates 45 million cans a year that could be recycled.
"And there is four times that much in glass bottles," he said.
Francisca Saldana, who teachers computer science at both Julius E. Sprauve School and Guy Benjamin School, wants a grant to help her students learn about the environment.
Waving around a pink $49 camcorder she bought at a stateside Wal-Mart, she said the students were already out taking shots of the dust that blows around the Enighed Pond Marine Facility.
"And I showed them how to create flyers with Power Point," she said.
Two members of AARP showed up to learn how they could get some money for beautification projects.
"This may make it possible," AARP President Joan Bermingham said.
In going over the application process, Waste Management's environmental programs manager Cordell Jacobs urged St. John residents to come up with projects that would most help the island.
"We want to spread it out to as many different areas as possible," he said.
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