waterguy: I did mention the bare foot problem in my post and did say that there are of course exceptions. As far as the cost of water is concerned, the majority of our water is collected in cisterns from rainfall so there is no real cost involved apart from general maintenance of the cistern, the monthly charge for the government-mandated independent water testing lab testing for commercial enterprises and likewise the annual nitrate check. If an establishment has access to piped-in city water, then that water is of course metered and charged for. That said, it's still minimal.

In my place (and maybe I'm just way out of the norm!) I have a commercial bar sink with three wells. In fact, I bought it from Mountain Top years ago along with bar stools when they were renovating the place (so sad now!) Because the stainless base eroded over time, I have plastic bowls in the second and third wells. The first contains a container for "slops." The second is filled every night with hot water and detergent and a commercial scrubber, the third is filled with hot rinse water and a rinse agent. Glasses as used are thoroughly cleaned and rinsed and then hung back onto the glassware rack. Yes, I'm a small establishment and thus only need to fill those bowls just once a night and, at most, twice a night. A small amount of water and I can assure you that my glassware is always sparkling and clean because any little thing which gets missed is caught either via my eagle eye or my bartender's.

Hope that clarifies a bit just from my own standpoint. Cheers!

I am a glass man. Good beverages need to be consumed in good stem ware....

Ok we are in the islands and beach bars should, I repeat should, follow boat rules - NO GLASS ONBOARD...

So now they are packaging some pretty good wines in boxes...

Industry needs to find a environment friendly plastic cup.... The can start by removing the word plastic from the last sentence...
Until then all one can do is hope they discarded the use cup properly.

I like glass, too, though I've broken so many I now use mostly plastic at home, too. Guests don't get plastic, though.:-)

I was wondering, is there any way to force/make sea glass from the empty bottles instead of throwing them away? Wonder how long that would take? Google, here I come...

You can "make" sea glass with a good grade of, or commercial, rock tumbler - it takes anywhere from a few hours to a day depending on the level of polishing you want.

how about coconut shells that have been pulerized into dust and then shaped and glued as glass with the laytex found in Papyas as the inside liner....

I know cost too much to make... the captialist in me is showing

Go for it, TomB. You never know - have them produced cheaply in China and sold here as "native" products and your capitalism may well pay off! and you'll be able to buy a home here! And before anyone bites me, it's interesting to see what's sold here as "local" but actually IS made in China. Everything from souvenir kitsch to tees and locally-designed artwork and pottery!

I am ready to quit work - sounds real hard to get started

so if any of you take my idea and make a billion, please build me a guest cottage behind your estate for some one who just wants to snorkel and have a dark and tonic at 5

TomB, you may not have noticed, but several people do crafts using sea glass. I know some who actually get it from the beaches here, but I think some are buying it to add to their projects. With all the glass bottles that are used on these islands, somebody could/should be recycling some of it into sea glass for crafts, I think. It won't let you quit your day job, but it should help with the environment.

I checked ebay, and there were some tumblers. I haven't chosen the one I'm going to bid on yet, but I'll probably get one of the toy ones to experiment with. Stay tuned!

ms411 - I agree with you
reuse what we can
but I really would like to have a cottage on stj behind a big villa because someone made TomB Coconut Cups
have a great weekend