Thank you for your participation in the Got Your Bags Florida Keys program. This newsletter is an update to our volunteers and residents who are working together to make this campaign a success.

"Got Your Bags?" Florida Keys is a coalition of residents, businesses, organizations, and local government dedicated to the reduction and voluntary elimination of single use plastic bags. We plan to focus our initial efforts on Big Pine Key, with the hope that other islands in the Florida Keys may eventually embrace our goals.

It is well documented how damaging the single-use plastic bag is to wildlife. Not only do we live in a refuge for many protected species, but we all benefit from an economy that relies on the National Marine Sanctuary surrounding our island community. It is a unique and fragile environment that deserves the little additional effort that it takes to sustain its viability.

 

Many individuals and organizations are aware of this problem and have started using and promoting reusable shopping bags to reduce the litter created by single use plastic bags. But the problem seems to persist, largely because of human forgetfulness, laziness, or just being uninformed.

 

It is a global problem. This local campaign is adapted from a successful model used in California and Maine to unite the personal efforts of residents and local business people to work together in an effort to overcome these obstacles.  

Bags have become the currency of our campaign as well as money. Donated bags arrive and get distributed at events into the hands of shoppers. We would like to thank the following organizations who have donated bags: Save-A-Turtle, Monroe County Solid Waste, The Nature Conservancy, Waste Management, TheRecycleBag.com, First State Bank and A KEY Real Estate. If you are a business and would like to donate bags, please contact us and we will be happy to distribute them at our events!