University of the Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus student Benita Randolph recently initiated an on-campus recycling program as part of her senior nursing leadership project. The UVI Recycle Program (UVIRP) aims to promote a healthier environment, reserve its beauty and decrease the amount of waste products sent to the landfill by promoting practices that include reusing, reducing and recycling.
UVIRP has begun recycling aluminum products. One blue and seven clear receptacles, donated by the Recycling Association of the Virgin Islands (St. John Chapter), have been placed around the residence halls on the St. Thomas campus. Students are urged to dispose of their aluminum waste in these receptacles. Randolph said all aluminum items will be accepted, including aluminum foil, cans, chocolate bar wrappings and cider/wine bottle tops. Users are urged to discard only aluminum products in these receptacles. Because the territory does not yet have a means of recycling plastic, which is the most abundant waste product on island, at this time the project focuses on recycling aluminum only.
In this initiative, Randolph has partnered with the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, UVI’s Reichhold Center for the Arts and Charlotte Amalie High School (CAHS). Reichhold Center and CAHS are conducting similar recycling projects. Volunteers from the CAHS program will sort the aluminum from receptacles on campus. Sanitary Trash Removal Services, which conducts the recycling, will process and transport the recycled aluminum off-island. Proceeds of 20 cents per pound will be given to the CAHS volunteer group. The arrangement is expected to create an ongoing and low-cost project.
For more information about UVIRP and conservation practices, visit Randolph’s blog at www.uvirp.blogspot.com/.
