TRELAWNY, Jamaica – On most days, the staff of Diamonds International are surrounded by polished glass cases, glittering gemstones, and the hum of tourists browsing at the Falmouth cruise port. But last Friday morning, their backdrop shifted to sun, sand, and an altogether less glamorous task—pulling condoms, wet wipes, and plastic bottles out of the sand at Burwood Beach.
For two hours, the jewelry retailers traded polish cloths for garbage bags, filling twenty of them with the kind of refuse that rarely makes it into postcards. The sharp juxtaposition was not lost on the team: custodians of luxury by trade, but custodians of the coastline by necessity.
“This is real value,” one participant remarked while hoisting a bulging sack of discarded plastic. “Diamonds may sparkle, but a clean beach is priceless.”
The clean-up was not staged as a one-off photo opportunity. It reflects a deliberate effort by the company to push beyond commerce and into stewardship—an acknowledgment that cruise ports thrive only when the surrounding environment does.
Burwood Beach, a popular stop for both locals and visitors, has long been strained by tourism’s double-edged sword: heavy traffic that fuels the economy while leaving behind mounting waste. Efforts like these are subtle reminders that sustainability is not the work of governments alone but of every business that profits from the island’s beauty.
Diamonds International, which also maintains operations in Ocho Rios, has hinted that this effort is only a spark. Further initiatives are on the horizon, designed to stitch environmental awareness into the fabric of its brand identity.
The staff left the beach not with jewels in hand but with something rarer: a sense of having invested in the one treasure Jamaica cannot afford to lose—its coastline.
