Giving New Life to Old Rum Bottles in St. Croix
Never was there ever a surer sign of the end of a nice beach lime than the sad sight pictured above.
We’ve emptied more than a few rum bottles in our time, particularly in pursuit of good fun along the pristine sandy shores that line our home island of St. Croix. This was always carried out with a slight degree of guilt, though not (entirely) because of any rum-fueled shenanigans that may have followed.
No, the guilt was more about the bottles. Or better said: what would become of the bottles.
It’s not like we left them impaled in the sand, of course. But even proper disposal methods don’t always guarantee bottles will meet with a responsible end in our islands.
Sadly, it seems, the Caribbean, for the most part, remains a region where recycling is still more pipe-dream than palpability.
Recently, though, a new company has sprung up in St. Croix expressly to give old rum bottles new life.

The company, Bottles Reimagined, does exactly as its name says – takes old discarded bottles (primarily of the Cruzan Rum variety) and re-imagines them into all sorts of drinking glasses, carafes, lanterns, shot glasses, vases, and more.
Bottles Reimagined partners with restaurants and bars all over St. Croix to collect bottles for production, a very worthwhile mission, in my opinion, as these bottles certainly look much better re-imagined with drinks in ’em than sitting in some smelly landfill.
To explore and purchase the full line of Bottles Reimagined products, be sure to visit them online and on Facebook.
Also, if you know of other recycling efforts in our islands, please drop us a line so we can check them out.