Our Corporate Days Of Service (And Successes) Featured On Local 10 News​

Our good friend, Emmy award-winning journalist – Louis Aguirre – from Local 10 News did a great segment on our Corporate Days of Service and the resulting impact. I noted some of my favorite comments below the video.

Here are some of my favorite clips:

– The impact from these opportunities of service go way beyond the doing. It’s what those team members will take back home with that that will really have a lasting impression. “We’re not only looking for what individuals can do to be a part of solving the marine debris problem, but also the role of business and how the business can produce less single use plastics that they then put out onto the market,” Doebler said.

– When Doebler hosted a cleanup for St. Dalfour Fruit Spreads, the employees were so impacted by what they experienced, the company removed with the plastic, tamper-proof seal on 60% of its products, resulting in 23 tons of reduced plastic waste.

– It’s a shift, and now the onus is on DirecTV. “I would challenge whoever does the manufacturing,” Doebler said. “Are they coming in plastic bags? Are they coming in styrofoam? Can we shift to something that is more biodegradable?”

Team members were already showing signs of inspiration. “Just being conscious about what kind of materials we’re using in our packaging,” said Banda. “If we have the ability to use some sort of biodegradable equipment, or even have a recycling program set in place when customers are done with that equipment, they can recycle it afterwards.”

Doebler said the goal is to get these corporations to see that they’re not giving consumers a lot of choice. Most every product comes packaged in some kind of plastic. What these experiences challenge the business to do is to reduce the amount of single-use plastic in products so the consumer doesn’t have to throw away so much trash.

We are Legendary.!.

Dara and I were honored to receive the Miami Dolphins “Local Legend Award” on Oct 15, 2023. Video of us on the Jumbo-tron below.

“During the 2023 Season, the Miami Dolphins and Truist are partnering to celebrate our South Florida ‘Local Legends’. These first responders, teachers, coaches, neighbors, and beyond make our communities a better place through simple, yet heroic, actions. They impact our lives in unexpected and life-changing ways, and we want to recognize the way they care for those around them.”

We were invited to come watch the game in amazing seats, then went on the field during the 3rd quarter (where got a front row view of a very exciting touchdown), saw our work on the Jumbo-tron, and a very excited T.D. the Dolphin gave us a super cool ‘Legend’ jersey (I imagine because TD doesn’t like plastic in his fish). Thanks for the tremendous honor Miami Dolphins and Truist – That was a lot of fun….

A small win is actually a big win. For years, a popular chain drug store in Miami Beach had a dumpster in their parking lot for their boxes and waste. They must have spent thousands of dollars for this roll-away, and it was such as shame to see all that cardboard entering the landfill (they didn’t even flatten the boxes to save space and reduce the number of pickups they needed). On 2 separate occasions, I filled out the customer survey on the receipt and shared my thoughts and the negative impression I had on their business, especially when another store of the same chain a mere 7 blocks away bundled the cardboard nicely. Apparently they read those surveys, because now they got rid of the dumpster and are bundling their cardboard.!. One for the win jar.!. See Something, Say Something.

Here in Miami Beach, we have spent a decade trying to eliminate cigarette butt litter in very creative and engaging ways including:

• We’ve produced and handed out 10,000+ reusable pocket ashtrays (made of recycled material of course) (see the pocket ashtray program here)
• We partnered with Surfrider and the City of Miami Beach to deploy 100 pole-mounted ashtrays now capturing tens of thousands of cig butts (see the ashcan program here)
• Walked up and down the beach with conversation-starting ‘Good Butts on the Beach / Bad Butts on the Beach’ signs.

All this time, we’ve continued to lobby elected officials to take on more responsibility, and we were thrilled that City of Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez called and told us he wanted to PROHIBIT SMOKING ON BEACHES AND PARKS (after Florida removed a statewide preemption that prevented us from creating such a regulation). We lobbied the other commissioners and spoke on behalf of the proposal, and it passed 5-1. The ban goes into effect on January 1, 2023. We realize enforcement will be difficult, but we are hoping the conversation gets smokers to realize that cigarette butts are made of non-biodegradable plastic that must be disposed of properly and that the planet (especially our beach) is not just a big ashtray. City communications has already created sandwich board signage at the entrance and is already getting the word out through social media and the local magazine. READ THE SMOKING BAN LEGISLATION

WATCH THE LOCAL 10 NEWS SEGMENT ON THE BAN

100% Plastic Free Soda and Water Contract for the City of Miami Beach

We single-handedly tanked a 10-year renewal of an exclusive beverage contract between Coca-Cola and the City of Miami Beach that would have put an additional 25 million single-use plastic bottles (400,000 pounds) onto our beaches while leaving taxpayers to fund the cleanup and waste removal. Our lobbying of elected officials and direct engagement with PepsiCo led to a new contract that was 100% aluminum for all soda and water products, brought millions of dollars of revenue to the City coffers, AND placed the burden of capturing the infinitely recyclable (and valuable) aluminum onto the manufacturer.

Terms include:

• Plastic-Free for all Soda and Water – PepsiCo partnered with Proud Source Water, which offers a 16oz resealable and refillable aluminum water bottle. The water option is carbon neutral and sourced responsibly.
• Revenue for the City – For the privilege of being the exclusive beverage sponsor, PepsiCo pays an annual sponsor fee in addition to a ‘per case sold’ rebate.
• Effective Recycling – For far too long, large companies financially benefit from sales of their products while passing on the costs of waste collection and disposal to the public (the city spends a small fortune cleaning the beaches and disposing of the tens of tons of trash generated by beachgoers). Because aluminum is so valuable (~.50 per pound), Pepsi is bringing in a 3rd party Replenysh to help recapture the material and get it back directly to PepsiCo to be turned into new beverage cans. Cans made from Recycled aluminum have roughly the same CO2 emissions as plastic (virgin aluminum is significantly higher, which is why capture and recycling is critical).

READ BELOW for the details and video stories:

Full Story:

Miami Beach has wonderful outdoor and public spaces that bring millions of visitors to our beaches, convention center, and cultural facilities. And these guests are thirsty all year round. In 2012, the City of Miami Beach signed an exclusive beverage pouring contract with Coca-Cola which required all city-owned venues, special events, and vendors operating on city property to purchase all non-alcoholic beverages from an established price list. It is a lucrative deal for everyone involved, and Miami Beach is a marque account for any manufacturer. In 2015, as Dave sat as Chair of the City of Miami Beach Sustainability Committee, he asked the City and Coca-Cola to add aluminum versions of their products onto the price list so venues like the Miami Beach Bandshell could achieve their plastic reduction and sustainability goals. This fell on deaf ears, so I marked my calendar for 2021 to engage at the Contract renewal time. In 2021, the Sustainability Committee made a list of suggested ‘requirements’ that the City should ask for at contract renewal, and I even had a meeting with the Coca-Cola team to share what was happening here on the ground with single-use plastics, but they thought greenwashing recycling as the solution would be enough. Unfortunately, cheap single-use plastic is just too integral a part of Coca-Cola’s business model.

I received word that the Contract was basically going to just be a renewal of the current contract, and that was completely unacceptable to me. I downloaded the Coca-Cola presentation and offers from our City’s public meeting notice website, printed it out, made comments highlighting all the flaws of the proposal, and set meetings with the Mayor and commissioners. I clearly demonstrated to each of them how this contract worth 25 million single-use plastic bottles didn’t fit with our City’s sustainability goals and was counter to the Mayor’s #PlasticFreeMB business incentive campaign. One by one, they agreed. Commissioner David Richardson told staff and Coca-Cola that he wouldn’t vote for any contract that had plastic, and the Mayor and other commissioners signed onto the same concept. The current contract no longer had the votes to succeed, and staff was asked to go renegotiate a contract that considered the total value to the city, not just the money – and it had to be plastic-free. Coca-Cola wasn’t willing (or was unable), but PepsiCo leaned in and embraced the idea – winning the final proposal which presented tremendous value for our city.

Other communities, sports facilities, universities and airports have the same type of exclusive beverage contracts, so you can help replicate this where you live.!. If you want a deep dive into the nuances, drop me an email to [email protected]

Channel 10 did multiple segments as the advocacy which set a new direction in favor of PepsiCo’s stated Sustainability Goals. If anyone wants to get into the nuances and how to replicate this in your community, contact [email protected]

Video 1) Miami Beach and Coca-Cola breaking up over plastic bottles

Video 2) Miami Beach breaks up with Coke over plastic bottles, goes with Pepsi

Video 3) Corporate America working to reduce plastic pollution in oceans and streets

We know that we cannot clean our way out of this ocean plastic mess, but we’ve always believed that cleanups can provide an eye-opening experience that will put people on a path to being part of the solution. So the obvious question is, how do cleanups affect the participants?

In 2021 and 2022, we started sending a post-event survey to the 3,000 volunteers who participate in our annual International Coastal Cleanup event, and the data shows that cleanups have a powerful impact on awareness, education, and behavior.

Some highlights:

• 66% had an increase in knowledge about marine debris from attending a cleanup
• 73% committed to using fewer single-use plastics
• 96% want to do more to protect the environment
• 81% committed to attending another cleanup.
• One of our favorite quotes is: “People can do some extraordinary things if they work together for a cause.”

Download the 2022 ICC Impact Survey Results

We had a great and productive day last Saturday for the 2022 International Coastal Cleanup Miami-Dade (Spearheaded globally by the Ocean Conservancy, and organized locally by VolunteerCleanup.org). 3,000 volunteers came out and collected a record shattering 22,125 pounds from 56 unique locations. Even Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava came out.!. See the recap below including:

• A quick educational debrief
• TV News Segment – Channel 10 did an AMAZING segment on the day – link below
• Final Results, Tally (WOW!!!!!!!!) and our thoughts

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Watch the Educational Debrief

We know that cleanups are not the long-term answer, but they can be very powerful eye-opening experiences that often serve as the catalyst for behavior change around single-use plastic consumption. Individuals, businesses, and government all have a role to play – and awareness is the first step towards action. If you didn’t attend a cleanup or weren’t around for your site captain’s educational debrief, Dara recorded a 2-minute debrief video on the marine debris lifecycle for you. Show her some love and give a thumbs up on the video.

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Video Montage of the day – News Story

Emmy award-winning journalist, Louis Aguirre from Local 10 News (on Channel 10) did an amazing segment recapping ICC on his weekly ‘Don’t Trash Our Treasure‘ segment. All of our site captains submitted footage of the different cleanups, so there is a good chance you or your friends were on TV.!. Watch the news segment here and share share share.

Set your DVR’s for every Wednesday to record the Local 10 News @ 5pm on Channel 10 for the weekly “Don’t Trash Our Treasure” segment that highlights local environmental issues.

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International Coastal Cleanup Day 2022 Results !!!

Holy Hermit Crab!!! 22,125 pounds from 55 locations and 2,976 volunteers.!. This is our 8th year organizing Miami-Dade County’s involvement in this annual global event, and it was bigger and better than ever before! We had more cleanup locations (55 vs 53) and a bigger haul than ever before (22,125 vs 17,771)! Thanks to our citizen science data collection, we’ve identified that BOTTLE CAPS are the top item collected in mangroves and rock shorelines, and CIGARETTE BUTTS are the top item collected on beaches (we still have more data to enter manually).

While this was a great event, this is sounding huge alarm bells for us. There are 6-10 cleanups happening all over Miami-Dade every weekend, and these locations are regularly cleaned by volunteers, yet we still collected more trash then ever before? Whats up with that Miami’ans? And municipalities?

We’ve identified a couple of significant sources that should be addressed immediately:

1) Poor waste management on the spoil islands: Boaters are bringing too much material out with them and then leaving the trash on the islands in overflowing garbage cans only to be washed away when the tides come in. Goverment needs to rethink the trash bins on the islands and put dumpsters at the boat ramps. And boaters need to ‘pack-it-out’.

2) Increasing (illegal) use of the Julia Tuttle Causeways: We are seeing a huge increase in people renting jetskis, fishing, partying, and religious ceremonies in an area not set up for visitors – and leaving all their trash behind. We need to address the root causes and clear people off the Causeway!

3) Insufficient Maintenance of Stormwater Systems and Canals: This is starting to be addressed, but it isn’t near frequent enough. Adding pollution controls and maintenance is government’s responsibility.

4) Lack of pride in the 305. Miami is an amazing place. Sure it has problems, but we are lucky that this is our home. Every resident must take pride in our neighborhoods and our community every single day – not just when the Heat win the playoffs. This is our home.

We want to give a big thank you to all the volunteers who showed up strong for our ocean last Saturday – this is truly a community effort.

We also want to acknowledge all organizations who serve as “Site Captains” leading each of the individual cleanups. These include many local environmental non-profits, local universities, city, county, state, and national parks, individual community leaders, and local businesses. Additionally, we are grateful for the logistical support we receive from the Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation, City of Miami Parks and Recreation, and the City of Miami Beach.

Finally, we’d also like to recognize the sponsors who not only lend financial support to the production of this county-wide event but also rally their employees to participate the day of. The 2022 Miami-Dade ICC is made possible by the generous support of our Presenting Sponsors Covanta and the Rickenbacker Marina, our Strategic Sponsors Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Verizon, and the Benjamin & Gloria Joannou, Jr. Family Conservation Fund, our Core Sponsors Miami-Dade County RER-DERM and Pubbelly Sushi, and our Supporting Sponsor Greenberg Traurig and the Consulate General of Canada.

Ultra Music Festival (EEG) partnered with VolunteerCleanup.Org, Debris Free Oceans, and Surfrider Foundation Miami Chapter to reduce their impact at their new home at Historic Virginia Key Key Beach and Miami Marine Stadium.

Overall, we felt that EEG did an excellent job in reducing their landfill waste, increasing the capture of recyclable materials, engaging the attendees to protect the bay and park. Read the final report card on Ultra’s Sustainabiity Efforts here.

If you would like to green your event, here is a starting document to get you going.

Overall First-Year Sustainability Grade: A

Background: In November of 2018, EEG, Inc sought to relocate their Ultra Music Festival to Marine Stadium and Historic Virginia Key Beach Park (HVKBP). There were many concerns from the community about these environmentally sensitive areas, and EEG reached out to numerous local environmental groups to ask for input and assistance to minimize the impact of their festival. Three environmental groups – VolunteerCleanup.Org, Surfrider Foundation Miami Chapter, and Debris Free Oceans – engaged in order to protect Virginia Key, HVKBP, and Biscayne Bay. The environmental groups developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in which EEG committed to a list of sustainability and environmental protection actions that are well beyond what any other festival or event of this scale, in the same venue has ever attempted or accomplished before. More impressive was that they integrated this sustainability program in less than 4.5 months.

We proceeded with this endeavor with 5 primary goals:
1) Protect our beautiful Biscayne Bay and Historic Virginia Key Beach Park.
2) Help EEG develop best practices for sustainable festivals and encourage EEG to replicate these practices in the other 40+ events they host around the world.
3) Leverage the prominence of Ultra in the Electronic Dance Music scene to set the bar for other festivals to work towards.
4) Educate festival goers on the importance of protecting our planet and ‘leave no trace’.
5) Have the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County build many of these same sustainability requirements into their Special Events Permits for other festivals and events that wish to host events throughout the city.

Overall, we felt that EEG did an excellent job in reducing their landfill waste, increasing the capture of recyclable materials, engaging the attendees to protect the bay and park. Read the final report.

Overall First-Year Sustainability Grade: A

If you are involved with a festival and would like guidance on Festival Greening, please email [email protected]. If you would like to green your event, here is a starting document to get you going.