December 2015 Ghut cleanup at Hard Labor and Friis Bay. 

The EPA Environmental Justice Grant project empowers involved youth in our St. John community to get the word out about illegal dumping and dumping of trash into ghuts. Of course, when there are heavy rains that same trash in the ghuts will end up into the ocean. Thus, the message is: “if we keep the land clean, we will keep the ocean clean also.”

CBCC held a youth event entitled “Youth-In-Action on St. John December 28-30, 2015 at the Calabash Boom Residents Center. There were various volunteer presenters and interactive activities on many topics, and a cleanup of Hard Labor ghut. A second youth event was held on October 21 and November 1, 2016 at the Guy Benjamin Community Center under the theme “Too Much Trash: What do We do?”.  EPA and local Waste Management Authority officials  spoke to the students about why new efforts in solid waste management are important in the VI. Island Green Living Association also provided a speaker to discuss volunteer based recycling.  The youth also visited the Susannaberg Transfer station and the Resource Depot on St. John to see the operations in practice.

During these events, a Public Service Announcement (PSA) video was prepared, with assistance from volunteer professional, Franklin Tulluch, to get the message out against ghut dumping and illegal dumping. It was aired on local Cable TV channels: TV2 and CNN, and shared with the wider Virgin Islands community  on the web via YouTube, Facebook and other social media).

Watch PSA Video: Too Much Trash – What Do We Do?

For more information, on this grant project, contact Sean Richardson, the project manager, at the CBCC office.