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Piles of empty beer bottles along Blacktip Island’s roadways sparked an island-wide anti-litter effort aimed at residents drinking while driving. (photo courtesy of Hwuongkom Yueiompua)

A marked increase in empty beer bottles along Blacktip Island’s roadways this week prompted island officials to launch an island-wide anti-littering program focused on the small Caribbean island’s drinking drivers to safeguard its tourism industry.

“Overnight the roadside beer bottle numbers have just exploded,” Chamber of Commerce Harry ‘Scratcher’ Wrasse said. “There’s always empties along the road, but this is out of hand. Island visitors are noticing, and commenting. Some have threatened not to come back because of it.

“We pitch Blacktip as a green, eco-friendly vacation destination,” Wrasse said. “Masses of empty beer bottles undercut that. We have roadside cleanup events, but we can’t keep up with it. I don’t know what’s causing it, but it has to stop.”

Island authorities have asked for locals’ help.

“We’re asking motorists to please keep their empties inside their cars until a suitable receptacle can be found,” Island Police Constable Rafe Marquette said. “We’re also asking island bars to not let patrons leave with open containers of any kind. Drunk driving’s a sport on this little rock, and there’s no practical way to stop it, but it shouldn’t be so messy.

“We hope residents will comply, and have been clear on what the next steps will be if they don’t,” Marquette said. “If folks won’t self-police, we’ll break out the roadblocks and breathalyzer tests. I don’t want to arrest half the island—we only have two cells in the jail, and if folks back me into a corner, I’ll be shipping them off to Tiperon.”

Environmental activists say the problem goes beyond esthetics.

“The bigger issue with all these glass bottles is they destroy wildlife habitat,” Greenpeace president Harry Pickett said. “The land crabs and iguanas can crawl over them just fine, but the hermit crabs are trapped on the roadways. They can’t get to food or water, then cars run them over. And some of the bigger ones are using empty beer bottles as makeshift shells.

“We’ve started nighttime patrols and stakeouts in problem areas to identify the miscreants,” Pickett said. “We’ll be naming and shaming whenever we make an ID. If shaming’s even possible on Blacktip.”

Other locals said the measures go too far.

“Got no right to tell us where to put our dead soldiers,” Dermott Bottoms said. “Been chuckin’ ‘em out the windows for generations. Don’t want that rattlin’ ‘round in the car. Part of island life. And island ecology, too. Only problem comes when somebody forgets to roll down their window, like James Conlee did last week.

“Tourists don’t like seein’ ‘em, they can go pick ‘em up,” Bottoms said. “Give ‘em another fun vacation activity, since they complain there’s nothing to do on Blacktip. Make a weekly contest of it, with free beer for the winner.”