Treasure Island Installs Beach Trash Bag Dispensers To Reduce Litter

Treasure Island set up two trash bag dispensers on its beaches. Free bags await visitors. The pilot program launched before spring break to combat waste accumulation at spots where garbage piles up without convenient disposal.

The dispensers sit near Sunset Vista Trailhead Park and by Caddy's. Beachgoers can snag a bag on their way to the sand, fill it with refuse, then toss it into a city bin when they leave.

"Basically, there are a few hotspots in the city where we were seeing an accumulation of trash without a lot of options to dispose of their trash conveniently," Paul Cardamon, GIS administrator and sustainability coordinator for Treasure Island, said, according to FOX 13.

The city hurried to get both dispensers installed right before the spring break rush hit. Officials worked with the Treasure Island Adopt-A-Beach program to set up the stations. Volunteers refill the bags once they run out. The program just entered its first month.

The Surfrider Foundation, a national environmental nonprofit, reports they have picked up more than 9,000 pounds of trash at cleanups this year. That includes Florida sites. Most debris is plastic, according to their data.

Sherry Knowles winters in the area. She's an Iowa resident who volunteers with cleanup crews. Crews collect hundreds of pounds of trash once or twice a month, she said.

"Still a lot of straws and stuff like that that people don't see and don't pick up," Knowles told FOX 13 on Tuesday.

An online tool created by the Ocean Conservancy shows that tossing out a plastic bottle with its cap, plus a cup, plate, and food container the right way, can save one sea turtle and one seabird.

Cardamon said the pilot program has worked well so far. The city hasn't gotten complaints about trash cans overflowing or waste on the beach since spring break started.

"We were getting like 1,000 people, and the beaches were just trashed," Cardamon said, according to Bay News 9. "We were trying to think of solutions of how can we reduce the amount of trash on the beach."

Officials hope to add more free trash bag stands to other stretches of coastline.