Cigarette butts, plastic bags, plastic cups, food containers, beer cans, you name it. All those and more are regularly and carelessly discarded on and around Key West’s streets, sidewalks, parks, marinas and elsewhere.
But they’re also regularly collected and properly disposed of by several teams of volunteers who embrace the city’s priority of cleanliness, which was outlined in its recent strategic plan, and thus work together to “Keep Key West Beautiful.”
“We’re trying to coordinate the efforts of all the groups in town and create a monthly calendar of cleanup projects by the various groups so more people can join, and also to avoid duplication of efforts in certain areas,” Mayor Teri Johnston told the Keys Weekly on Wednesday, March 23.
Starting next week, on March 31, the Key West Weekly will publish upcoming, volunteer clean-up events and locations in the city of Key West, along with contact information about how to get involved in various volunteer clean-up efforts in Key West. Dorian Patton, executive assistant to City Manager Patti McLauchlin, will coordinate the scheduling and connect volunteers with projects and programs. “Our community services department does a fantastic job despite being shorthanded, but they can’t be everywhere at once. So it’s really encouraging to see how much people care about this island and how willing they are to pitch in,” Patton said, addin that the gracious volunteers far outnumber those who say, “The city has employees who are paid to keep the town clean.”he city pays a employees
Mayor’s Beautification Committee: Johnston launched the Mayor’s Beautification Committee in 2019, assembling about 30 volunteers who tackle at least one project per month. One of the first things the committee did was repaint all the city’s black-on-white street signs that appear on utility pole cement bollards at downtown intersections, Johnston told the Keys Weekly on Wednesday, March 23. “We even had tourists help us paint the street signs. They’d stop and ask what we were doing. Then they’d go back to their hotel, change and come back to help,” Johnston said.
Plogging the Keys: The all-volunteer Ploggers meet every Friday morning. The group has an active Facebook page that announces upcoming locations while encouraging anyone, anytime to pick up trash they see while out walking the dog or jogging.
The Ploggers spent March 18 cleaning up around Key West Bight, along with City Manager Patti McLauchlin.”We removed 17 pounds of trash and nearly 2 gallons of cigarette butts,” the group announced. Cigarette butts are actually recycled, resident Marge Holtz announced during the March 23 beautification committee meeting. She said there’s a company called TerraCycle that pays a small amount for cigarette butts; they are recycled into “a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets, and any remaining tobacco is recycled as compost,” states the company’s website.
Adopt-a-Spot: Adopt-a-Spot is a program that enlists residents, visitors, businesses, students, civic groups and institutions of all kinds volunteer to take care of a specific geographic location about which they feel passionate. They work with the head of the program to design a specific plan for a specific site, and commit to implementing the plan on a consistent basis. The program seeks to ensure a clean, healthy and protected island community.
Volunteers enter into a one-year agreement with the city, during which they agree to conduct litter removal at regularly scheduled intervals. Many miles of highways, roads, beaches and canals are adopted statewide by various organizations, allowing civic-minded people to make a difference in their communities.
