Food for thought......

[Pia]

........ http://www.stjohntradewindsnews.com/

It would be great if we all would do this (residents and visitors alike) so I thought I would post here as I know how much you love the Virgin Islands

Thank you.

[loria]

i am actually surprised that st J and /or USVI haven't passed a plastic bag ban! (The States should get on board with this as well-- we jus passed one in our town-- not really popular with the big stores, but so what!)

[jaq w]

I know if the Starfish sold reusable bags, I would buy them. I use them at home all the time.

[DonnaM]

Pia, thanks for sharing. Please let us know when/where the bags are available for purchase!

[liamsaunt]

Starfish sells large sqaure insulated zippered reusable bags with handles for $3.99/each. I bought a couple when I got here and they are great--so much easier to transport than the flimsy plastic bags. Starfish Gourmet also will give you a reusable cloth handled bag that holds six bottles of wine for free with your purchase.

[Pia]

Right now nothing available on a regular basis - maybe visitors could pack them in their luggage - they don't take up much room and leave them at the villa's or even donate them to a local (you could give them to one of the grocery stores maybe and let them give them away ?) If every visitor did this on every visit there would be more than enough after a short time..........huuum maybe I could start something?

Pia

[Pia]

Thanks for inspiring me - I have an idea. I'll keep you posted.

Pia

[paulandtracie]

Great idea, good luck Pia! We bought reusable cloth bags at Starfish a couple of weeks ago, used them all week and brought them home. Hawaii has banned all plastic bags.

[Xislandgirl]

Caribbean Villas gives you one, a small one, when you get to the villa. It has a map, pens, etc in it.

It would be great if all villa companies gave you one or two and encouraged you to use them when shopping.
The price is small and it would make a huge difference

[Diana2]

I packed my own cloth bags that I use for my own grocery shopping here in Michigan. It's the responsible thing to do. I won't say that we didn't use plastic while we were there on STJ but it sure cut down on the bags that we did receive.

[liamsaunt]

Somewhat related, does anyone know if there's a food pantry on St. John that accepts donations? I am leaving tomorrow (argh) and am going to have unopened leftover non perishable stuff. I could just leave it at the house buf if there is a place to drop it off i will do that as I have time between checking out and when the water taxi is picking us up.

[toni]

when we were there last year pine peace gave us reusable bags for free (if i remember correctly) when we bought a certain $ value of stuff.

we always have reusable bags here for the various stores-wegmans's, aldi's, etc.

walmart is probably the one place i don't use them and i should

great reminder to bring them with us for our next trip!

[Pia]

Liamsaunt - the church on the one way street (opposite the ferry dock and for the life of me the name has completely left my brain) has a "soup kitchen" type program I believe once per week - maybe give them a call/stop by. If the name doesn't come to me maybe you can call Connections and they can look out the window

[mnfun2bme]

Pia... I love the idea of having everyone bring bags and leave them there. It might even be fun to sign them with your villa name or origination city as you use them so people can see how the bags "get around."

Count on me stuffing some in my bag. Villa Jumbie will have plenty when I tell the other girls to bring them, too!

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

P.S. Can't wait to hear your idea, Pia!

[silverheels]

Good idea, Pia. Bringing a couple of reusable bags with me.