Trash & pollutants

This working group is intended to promote reduction & responsible disposal of trash, as well as restrictions on sunscreen to protect the environment.

Interested to get involved? Fill out our working group interest form.

Trash:

The responsibility for the environmental health of the bay and keeping the beach clean belongs to all of us. Please do not litter! Trash – especially lightweight trash like plastic bottles or anything near the shoreline – can easily wind up in the ocean, harming turtles and other sea life, or get stepped on by barefoot beach-goers. If you see litter, please help by picking it up and putting it in one of the many garbage cans/trash barrels located at Magens Bay.

Friends holds informal trash cleanup walks weeklyish, depending on interest, usually on the evenings of busy cruise ship days (typically Wednesdays). Check our calendar.

Glass bottles, latex balloons, confetti, plastic streamers, and generators are not allowed at Magens Bay. Virgin Islands businesses may not provide plastic drinking straws.

Reduce, reuse, recycle:

You can reduce waste (and avoid spending money on drinking water) by bringing and refilling your own water bottle, rather than using a single-use bottle, which often end up in our waters. There is a water filling station (thank you VICS!) at the food concession, located between the restaurant and the gift shop. See photo below.

If you do use single-use bottles while at Magens, there are dedicated plastic bottles receptacles. These were installed in November 2025 as a partnership between VIWMA, Bailey's, Island Green Living on St John. (And if you have other recyclables, clean plastic bottles and aluminum cans can be taken to The Market Saturdays 9-11AM for recycling.)

Smoking:

Smoking is not allowed from the tree line to the water and should only be done well away from other beachgoers, as smoke blows far downwind. Cigarette butts – once fully extinguished – should be thrown out in designated cigarrette buckets or the main trash barrels, not left in the sand.

Sunscreen:

Sunscreens containing reef-damaging oxybenzone, octinoxate and octocrylene are not allowed in the USVI as per the 2019 "Toxic 3 Os" sunscreen ban. A list of some allowed mineral-based sunscreens (zinc oxide or titanium oxide) can be found at Island Green Living. Apply sunscreen well before entering the water to prevent them from washing off. Additionally, spray sunscreens should only be applied in designated areas away from people, animals, fruit trees, and the water.

A good alternative to sunscreen is to wear sun-protective clothing instead; it is faster to apply and lasts longer than sunscreen, and it also offers protection from insect bites and jellyfish stings.

Vessel discharge:

As per Title 25, chapter 16, § 408 of the V.I. Code, throwing or discharging refuse or pollutants into shoreline areas or territorial waters is prohibited. See the Boats & waterscraft page for additional boating rules.