The Florida Aquarium is joining a coalition of other zoos and aquariums across North America in a month-long event to reduce single-use plastic.
The Plastic Free Ecochallenge is an event during the month of July to help promote sustainable living and reduce plastic pollution.
By participating in this challenge, officials at the aquarium said they hope the staff and community will join The Florida Aquarium’s Team and commit to activities that reduce the use.
Each location is a team, and The Florida Aquarium’s team has 141 members participating in it.
Along with this challenge, the aquarium has found other ways to reduce plastic.
It partnered with beverage, retail, and food service providers who will help with the cause.
Some of the initiatives include:
- Plastic-free beverages
- Sustainable food and catering
- Shop sustainability
- Community cleanups
The aquarium’s restaurant Café Ray is transitioning from selling single-use plastic beverage bottles to recyclable glass and aluminum.
Guests will see reusable jars, bottles, washware, and no more straws and lids.
The SSA Group or the Service Systems Association, is an award-winning provider of visitor amenities. It is also helping with food and catering services.
By partnering with the SSA, the aquarium will help source food, wine, beer, and coffee from 13 nearby vendors. Officials said the partnership helps support local businesses and reduce fuel emissions.
The SSA group also plans to help the aquarium with an increased focus on partnerships with women and minority-owned businesses and regular donations to Feeding Tampa Bay.
Event Network is a retail provider partnering with the aquarium to eliminate plastic waste in the gift shop.
This partnership offers reusable cloth bags, which can save 750,000 single-use plastic bags from landfills, and stuffed animals from 100% recycled plastic bottles.
The aquarium also hosts community cleanups to keep motivation in reducing pollution and single-use plastics outside July.
From April to June 8, it removed nearly 4,000 pounds of trash from local parks and waters.
The aquarium is committed to “using a science-based, impact-driven approach to address conservation issues,” according to its website.
“They have always been pushing plastic out and bringing in other things and they would continue doing that in my five years there,” Florida Aquarium volunteer Sondra Scholl said.
That is one reason she is participating in the Plastic Free Ecochallenge again.
“I would do it every year and I will continue. I was talking to some of my friends and they said I have done everything and I’m like, I don’t think I could go that way. I think no I haven’t done everything, I can still do more,” she said.
Scholl says since she started volunteering five years ago, the aquarium has been practicing the basic tenets of recycling.
“Reduce, reuse, recycle, and that is what set me on my pattern because we do it daily,” she said.
Officials at The Florida Aquarium say the challenge’s aim is reducing single-use plastics.
It said the hope of participating is to create small habit shifts in everyday life that can create permanent changes.
Last year, the aquarium ranked sixth in the competition. Currently, the Florida Aquarium Team is ranked seventh out of 135 teams.
