More than 500 ninth- and 10th-grade students filed into the Charlotte Amalie High School auditorium Monday morning to receive information on single-use plastic and the Virgin Islands water supply, along with an aluminum water bottle for each one of them.
Zoe Banfield, V.I. Eco-Schools program coordinator for the St. Thomas-St. John district, which operates under the umbrella of the V.I. Conservation Society (VICS), after a short animated video exposing the petroleum industry’s vested interest in keeping plastic — especially the single-use variety — alive, asked, “How many of you used a plastic toothbrush this morning, or how about one of those facial products with the little microbeads in them?”
One young woman toward the front of the audience raised her hand enthusiastically as Banfield explained those little beads were little pieces of plastic.
Banfield then asked — though a quick scan of the audience provided the answer — “How many of you drank out of a single-use plastic bottle this morning?” Many, if not most would have had to raise their hand.
Banfield then asked how many of the students felt safe drinking out of the water fountains at school or from their water taps at home. Almost no hands went up. Between lead in the pipes and bacteria of all sorts in cisterns, it was not surprising that few students felt comfortable about their water supply.
Along with reducing plastic waste, confidence in the water supply for young people is also vitally important.
“As an athlete,” said presenter Julius Jackson, “I can tell you good water is important.” Jackson is a partner in Caribbean Water Technologies, the company that will soon be installing two “very advanced” carbon-filtered water stations at the school. Jackson, who is a well known community activist, said the water that will come out of those machines is “nothing but H2O… I vouch for it 100 percent.”
As for the single-use plastic waste itself, 55 percent of it ends up in the ocean, according to V.I. Waste Management Agency Education Coordinator Shena Ritter, who pointed to a photograph of the two landfills, Anguilla on St. Croix and the Bovoni landfill on St. Thomas. “Do you want this next to your house,” Ritter asked. Because, she explained, the landfills are full, and more landfills are the only answer “if we don’t stop creating plastic garbage,” which never, ever biodegrades. And recycling is a myth. Much more ends up in human bodies than is ever effectively recycled.
CAHS is the first school on St. Thomas to be the recipient of these water stations, which serve up chilled water through V.I. Eco-Schools efforts, which were supported by VICS grants from the V.I. Education Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and Alpine Securities, according to Anne Marie Hoffman, VICS executive director.
Four of the same filling stations have been installed on St. Croix at Eulalie R. Rivera, Complex/CTECH, Claude O. Markoe and Pearl B. Larsen. Bottle distributions have taken place at Eulalie, Pearl B. and Complex.
A second informational session and bottle distribution was held Tuesday for 11th- and 12th-graders at CAHS.
The stations, which should be installed no later than April, cost $3,500 each. The advantage of these stations, according to Banfield, is the price includes installation and a year’s worth of filters and maintenance. With Caribbean Water Technologies being partially locally owned, there will be “boots on the ground,” Banfield said after the presentation, to follow up on the maintenance — an important factor in keeping the stations viable.
V.I. Eco-Schools, which was founded in 2018, is part of the world’s largest international environmental education program engaging PreK-12 students, faculty, administrators and community volunteers in a comprehensive, environment-based program to improve student environmental literacy and skills.
Eco-Schools operates under the umbrella of VICS, which promotes the conservation and restoration of island ecosystems, sustainable development of islands, and awareness of conservation issues.
