No More Plastic Grocery Bags

[Christi]

"We all use on dive boats"? There are dive ops still handing out those one-use plastic bottles of water on their boats? WTF is that about? I wouldn't dive with such an op. I prefer the good 'ole big insulated water cooler with a spout on the bottom just like you see on the back of every sizable construction crew's truck or trailer. A bag of purified ice goes in and then it gets filled with purified water. I'd say 90% of the divers on boats that use a cooler bring their own water bottles with them that they refill over and over again throughout their vacation everywhere. Virtually no one ever uses the disposable plastic cups that are available. The reality is a dive op can't offer wax paper cups and cones effectively on their boats because they get wet and the humid/wet environment renders them useless in a day or two.

I'm guessing you won't share the name of the dive op you use that is still handing out plastic water bottles that get 1/4-1/2 drank and then are found laying all over the place in the boat to be thrown away. Tell your dive op to get an insulated water cooler and end the plastic personal bottled water BS or you'll find a new dive op. That sends a STRONG message that just may be heard unless that op caters to a dive clientele that cares less about the environment and prefers to see their selfish/arrogant demands met... God forbid they drink water out of a spout from a common cooler.

Before you make assumptions like that, why not inquire with your dive op how the bottles are disposed of? My crew brings the plastic bottles back to our bodega and I have a recycling bin. Every Friday, Hazlo Hoy picks them up for recycling.

I would love to be able to have a cooler with a spout, but there is not a secure way that we've found to secure them in the small boats.

We did have the individual souvenir water bottles that were given to each guest at the beginning of the trip at one time, but there were issues with the supplier here. We are in the process of getting more and should have them in the next 30 - 45 days.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Aldora is doing the same thing. WE expect logo cups next week, which our divers can keep, and we have room on the boats for a Gatorade type cooler.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[DandyDon]

I always bring a pint vacuum bottle of coffee.

 

[rabe]

You could take the batteries out of a large sex toy and store them in that. Might make a trip through TSA more entertaining if you're not easily embarrassed.

"Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor. But... every once in a while... it's a dildo. Of course, it's company policy never to imply ownership in the event of a dildo. We have to use the indefinite article, "a dildo", never ... your dildo."

 

[Streydog]

If you have ever been to San Pedro Belize check out their Belkins beer bottles. They are so heavy you think you have a 12 oz beer but they are much smaller . When you see a tracker pulling a cart full of empty glass bottles across a bumpy street back to the bottling plant you know why they make them that thick.

 

[Diving Dubai]

The problem of supplying water on a boat is a vexing one and not as easy to solve as it seems, so I have sympathy for @Christi and @Dave Dillehay . We've been through this in my area.

A lot of guests have the view that water supplied in anything but a single use sealed container is "unhygienic" or "unsafe water"

Providing drinking containers has a cost - if they're reused then there is also a cleaning cost - how/where to you recoup that cost? Not all guests are "eco minded". As Christi mentions finding a way to transport a large water container on a small boat may not be that simple

Guests often don't like having to either provide their own container (citing weight/space in luggage) and don't' want to buy a container at a dive shop as its a further cost to them.

I personally have a double walled aluminum bottle, that when you remove the drinking spout has a neck large enough to drop ice cubes into it. It's much admired and not that expensive. Guests have commented on it, asked where to buy and how much and then balked that it's not a $1 item.

Starbucks here, started an initiative where if you provided yoru own container you got a small discount. People argued that the discount verses the purchase price plus the "hassle" of washing their own mug didn't make it worthwhile.

The consumer is a hard group to please

 

[chillyinCanada]

I don't want single serve water bottles whether they're going to recycling or not.

Use some bungie cords or something to hold the gatorade type cooler in place. Figure it out.

The last place I dove gave me a souvenir metal water bottle which was a blessing because they used different colored plastic cups for water. Thst didn't bother me at first because I'd set my special color cup aside. As the week went by I noticed thst more often than not, my cup was put back with all of the others
before I was back on the boat, so that's a no.

Another place did similarly but at the beginning of the day, there were freshly washed plastic cups with masking tape strips that had our names written on them. Sure, mine was usually spelled wrong but hey . . .worked great, lol.

Another place provided plastic reuseable wayer bottles that we could write our own names on. These were great though sometimes would crack before I got them home with me st the end of a trip.

Recycling is not the end all and be all. It's just better than not doing.

 

[Streydog]

Next time you are in Cozumel look around and watch the locals, they are not walking around with water bottles or their Yeti type bottles. Us tourist are the ones most responsible for them being all over the Caribbean.

 

[DandyDon]

If you have ever been to San Pedro Belize check out their Belkins beer bottles. They are so heavy you think you have a 12 oz beer but they are much smaller . When you see a tracker pulling a cart full of empty glass bottles across a bumpy street back to the bottling plant you know why they make them that thick.

I spent a week there many years ago, and they used a John Deere tractor to pull a wagon for beer & water deliveries from the same facility.

A lot of guests have the view that water supplied in anything but a single use sealed container is "unhygienic" or "unsafe water"

Yes, well, if I cannot walk into the kitchen freely to inspect it and the dishwasher, I'm that way. There used to be rumors in Mexico that kids were refilling used single use plastic bottles from unsafe sources, gluing the lids back on so it seemed like they were sealed properly, and selling to soon-to-be-ill tourists.

Use some bungie cords or something to hold the gatorade type cooler in place. Figure it out.

Yeah, reduce passenger count by one and income by $80/trip. Fail.

The last place I dove gave me a souvenir metal water bottle which was a blessing because they used different colored plastic cups for water. Thst didn't bother me at first because I'd set my special color cup aside. As the week went by I noticed thst more often than not, my cup was put back with all of the others
before I was back on the boat, so that's a no.

See my remarks about personally inspecting dishwashers above. I just carry my own pint vacuum bottle filled with coffee or water, depending on conditions.

Us tourist are the ones most responsible for them being all over the Caribbean.

Nope. Several countries in & on the Caribbean Sea have very poor systems for dealing with garbage, so much of it flows in rivers during deluges to the Sea - then it starts circling the Sea. In the Florida Straits, some of the Gyre current heads north towards New England but some it heads south to rejoin the Gye and circle back around again.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'll give you that of the dish washing, Dandy, but it was still a much preferred system to that of drinking out of which ever cup the crew decided to give you after a dive. Didn't take me long to start carrying my own.

OK, so it's a fail because no one can figure out where to put a big water bottle. Where is the mask bucket kept? Camera tank? Where do divers stow the gear that they bring aboard? (Dry bags, gear bags, mesh bags, etc)