Eco Tourism in Puerto Rico

The title of this blog post may be misleading as I won't be writing about the latest Eco-resort if such a thing exists in Puerto Rico, but I will be writing about ways that tourists here can help minimize the impact of their visit to this island, whose natural beauty, beaches and coastline draw millions (yes millions) of visitors each year.  http://www.topuertorico.org/tinfo.shtml  It seems to be a bit of a catch-22 as these beautiful natural resources can only stay that way if they are managed properly, bringing in millions of people who create trash and waste and consume can only be a negative, but there aren't many alternatives for the Puerto Rico economy; manufacturing and agriculture can have as much if not more negative environmental impact.  A growing tourism industry relies on keeping Puerto Rico's natural resources clean and beautiful and hopefully the Puerto Rico tourism Company and the visitors to Puerto Rico understand this.  To see a report from the Puerto Rican Tourism Company from 2006, click here.  But I don't see a lot of this in action here on the West Coast.
 
Sometimes people go on vacation and take a vacation from their responsibilities as citizens as well, using bottled water just because you're on vacation doesn't make sense, but it happens.  I'm hoping to reach some of the people coming here to let them know that as a group, things will not change, its up to individuals to think about what the impact of their lives is on the planet and how they can lessen that impact.


Unfortunately, Puerto Rico doesn't have very good public transit, I know in Old San Juan it is ok, but generally the Publicos are unreliable and a mystery to tourists.  So a rental car is probably the only option, but before you think about getting a nice big sedan, try a smaller vehicle and realize that alot of the roads in Puerto Rico are small 2-lane roads. you'll be saving gas and not be reduced to playing Chicken with the oncoming cars.

Very little of the plastic consumed on this island gets recycled here.  Most ends up in landfills, some gets shipped off the island and some make it to the plastic recycling centers on the island, please read about the misconceptions of recycling here.
Water is a big issue nowadays and bringing a water bottle with you, instead of buying bottled water will make a huge difference, but also asking the hotel if they filter their water and letting them know that that is important to you as a consumer. 
When you go out to eat, once again bringing your own water or asking if the restaurant filters their water keeps restaurant owners accountable.  If a bar serves you a drink in a disposable plastic cup, ask if they have a reusable cup or for your next drink, request to use the same cup.
Trash - Very little glass get recycled on Puerto Rico 7-10%, most gets ground up and put in landfills, so the best environmental  material is aluminum.  While Puerto rico does not have a bottle bill like many states requiring a deposit for all bottled beverage or aluminum can sales, many individual collectors still make aluminum and cardboard the most recycled materials on the island.
Asking if bars, restaurants and hotels recycle will help get these operators on board.
Try to buy local food and remember to seek out eco-friendly businesses on the island, make your tourism dollars count by giving it to those that care about keeping Puerto Rico natural and beautiful.  Find more info on 2006 PR Recycling Report.

Plastic Free Oceans

Yesterday we went to a news conference at the Villa Cofresi announcing the start of a standup paddle board journey around the island of Puerto Rico to raise awareness of the problem of plastics and their growing mass in the oceans around Puerto Rico.  Here's a link to their website:  http://plasticfreeoceanpr.org/index.php/?option=com_content&view=article&id=62   So happy to see a local getting local kids and communities involved in this issue.  At the news conference, Ernie Alvarez spoke of his journey to come and what he hoped to accomplish, the plight of sea turtles stuck in plactic bags and a growing sea of plastic out there in the ocean that surrounds us.  Our friends Angelo Cordero and Katka Konecna will accompany him to photograph and film the journey as well as the news conferences along the way.  They will raffle off a brand new ARK paddle board at the end on June 5th and are selling t-shirts and reusable grocery bags to help fund their "Challenging the Ocean to Save the Ocean" campaign.
     The plastics issue has been gaining ground lately, there have been a number of documentaries detailing the plastic soup running hundred of miles swirling around the Pacific Ocean.  One of the most interesting facts that I learned recently:  PLASTIC NEVER DIES, every piece of polyethylene plastic manaufactured since the 1930's when it was first made is still around!!  So  these statistics: 

• Number of plastic bags used worldwide each year: 4,000,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000,000.
• Amount of oil used annually to produce plastic bags: 17,200,000,000 to 21,500,000,000 gallons.
• Number of plastic bags used by Americans each year: 110,000,000,000.
• Amount of plastic bags recycled in the United States in 2006: 2%.
• Amount of plastic used worldwide every year just to bottle water: 1,500,000 to 2,700,000 tons.
• Number of plastic water bottles sold in the United States in 1997: 4,000,000,000
• Nearly eight out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill.

end up being pretty scary.

     So what to do.  Using reusable grocery bags is the easiest way to start and I was stoked to see MR. Special, a grocery store in Aguada selling these bags for $.99  Maybe we will see some changes that already afoot in the states come to the island.  I ran across a great website that uses guerilla tactics to raise awareness of the problem of single-use plastic bottles and containers, http://guardiansofthepacific.org/.  They have downloadable stickers that they urge you to glue onto vending machines and anywhere plastic bottles are sold.  A great way for kids to stick it to the man and stick up for a great cause.
     With the bottled water boom kicking into high gear 10 years ago, plastic usage has surged and these ubiquitous bottles have not only contibuted more than their share to the pollution of the oceans, but manufacturing these bottles also creates problems: 

• Producing the bottles for American consumption required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation
• Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide
• It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water
• (http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/bottled_water_and_energy.html)

We have a filter on our refrigerator that we change every 6 months and we both have reusable water bottles to take with us.  The Brita Filtered Water Pitcher is also a great way to filter tap water rather than buy bottled.  Also buying milk and juice in cardboard or glass containers will cut back plastic manufacturing.  It's not that hard to really make a significant decrease in your plastic consumption and I think if people know the problems and the easy solutions, it will get done.  The key is to spread the word!

Read more at Suite101: History of Plastic: Facts, Stats, and Recycling Information: The Story of Plastic: Discovery, Invention, and Practical Use http://manufacture-engineering.suite101.com/article.cfm/history-of-plastic-discovery-invention-and-practical-use#ixzz0o6V8MKSu

Let the Preaching Begin....

While I was in Los Angeles for a week, Cyndi volunteered at a Surfrider beach cleanup here in Rincon. They worked at Maria's which is a beautiful spot where we take the dogs often. They picked up at least 15 bags of trash; bottles, glass, cans, straws, clothes and all other sorts of trash that people take with them to the beach or that the wind blows onto the beach from the nearby road.

Surfrider held this beach cleanup day as a worldwide event, so beaches all over Rincon, the Caribbean and the rest of the Earth were made cleaner on this single day by volunteers like Cyndi. Obviously the cleanup makes the beach nicer, but so much trash effects the animal and plant life in and out of the water. I recently saw a documentary where oceanographers were tracking a giant cluster of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. It was hundreds of miles long and wide, made up of water bottles, fishing line, 6-pack holders and small plastic globules that are used in industrial plastic manufacturing. It was disturbing to see the amount of trash that had made it's way out to sea and the effect it was having on the sea life.

It seems pretty obvious that we need to take care of our oceans, but apparently not to everyone. At the risk of sounding preachy, next time you're at the beach, take a few minutes to pick up any trash you see; even if everyone doesn't do it, for those that do it will make a huge difference, and it makes you feel good.

The Rincon chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, http://www.surfrider.org/rincon/index.php is headed by Wes Merten. He held a meeting on Thursday, so we went to see what they were working on. There were only about 8 other people there, which even though a lot of people from Rincon are out of town this time of year, seems like a very low amount considering it's such a wave-loving community. The next project is installing 24 new trashcans at some of the beaches around Rincon. It's great that Surfrider has the money and the connections to be able to do this kind of thing as it makes keeping the beaches clean a little easier if there are less excuses not to.

Cyndi and I are both looking forward to being more involved with Surfrider and a few other organizations here in Rincon that make the town a better place to live. We're setting our roots here and it's important for us to work toward improving our environment and not leave it up to someone else.