There are many small, easy changes we can all make at work and at home that make a big impact overall. Realizing the critical need to think green is the first step. Let’s start with using a reusable grocery shopping bag instead of plastic. FirstBank has giveaways of these bags periodically and they are now available at many of our retail outlets.
Recycling
It almost always takes less energy to make a product from recycled materials than it does to make it from new materials. Using recycled aluminum scrap to make new aluminum cans, for example, uses 95 percent less energy than making aluminum cans from raw material. By using materials more than once we conserve natural resources.
Recycling is available in St Thomas at STS, Sanitary Trash removal Services, located in subbase. Driving instructions: if you know the way to Victor's Hideout when your going up the hill you take a right turn instead of left, continue straight and they are located next door to the big yellow bldg. Open M-F 9:30 to 4pm, they ask that you make sure to bring only aluminum cans...no steel. Also ask to collect the cans together in one big bag, not small separate bags because they have to take them out.
VI Waste Management Authority has provided some great resource information. . Download pdf STX STT Here or click here to see.
Think Creatively
While there are countless obvious ways we can do our part to help the environment, we challenge you to think outside the box and discover other creative ways to make a difference. Involve your children, share your ideas with others and brainstorm to come up with new methods.
Jon Bohmer did just that. He sat down with his two little girls for a simple project they could work on together and inadvertently discovered a solution to one of the world's biggest problems for just $5: A solar-powered oven. The design is simple and uses two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, and an acrylic cover that lets in the sun's rays and traps them. Black paint on the inner box, and silver foil on the outer one, help concentrate the heat. The trapped rays make the inside hot enough to cook casseroles, bake bread and boil water. The award-winning oven has gone into production. See link below for full story.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/09/solar.oven.global.warming/index.html
Inventor Jon Bohmer with the oven he has made out of a cardboard box.
Links
Virgin Islands Energy Office
Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Water Use It Wisely
USA Today’s Green Effort
http://www.usatoday.com/marketing/brand_mkt/splash/greeneffort/index.htm
