Anna Maria Island communities are protecting paradise one bottle at a time.
More than two decades ago, the city of Anna Maria took steps to address resident concerns over sustainability, implementing the first curbside recycling project on Anna Maria Island.
This year marks the 27th anniversary of the recycling program, which helped foster similar programs in Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach.
Over the years, higher numbers of short-term rentals prompted the need for a wide-scale recycling solution on the island.
Bradenton Beach launched its program 20 years ago this spring. The city-administered program ended in 2011, when they contracted those services from Waste Pro, a national waste removal and recycling corporation.
Holmes Beach started a recycling program in 2010 and moved under contract in 2015 with Waste Management and then Waste Pro.
Anna Maria started the first island program in 1997 and is under contract with Waste Management.
“Out here on the island, our people are more active about recycling and removing generational plastics from the beach,” Holmes Beach code compliance supervisor JT Thomas told The Islander April 11.
He said the success of the recycling programs has been reliant on community engagement and education.
Thomas said the future of recycling in Holmes Beach involves the start of an E-scrap program. Compliance administrator Kim Charron and code compliance clerk Cristin Carter soon will hold a stakeholder meeting about the proposed project.
Global generation of electronic scrap is rising five times faster than documented e-scrap recycling, according to data from the United Nation’s Global E-waste Monitor.
Bob ten Haaf, division vice president of the Bradenton-Sarasota district for Waste Pro, spoke to The Islander April 11 about recycling, saying what began as a small community effort is now measured in tons.
“Last year, 184 tons of recycling came out of Bradenton Beach. Holmes Beach was 522 tons,” ten Hoff said. Roughly half of those numbers were generated from businesses.
Ten Haaf said tonnage removed from Bradenton and Holmes Beach is transported to Waste Pro’s recycling center in Sarasota.
“We process it, sort it, bail it and we ship it out,” he said. “We process around 3,000 tons a month through that plant.”
He also spoke to rumors that local recycling is disposed of in other locations.
“This particular plant, when we did export, cardboard was the only thing we exported. Plastics have always been used and reused in the United States. Once it gets in our process, we are better than 90% effective in getting plastic water bottles out,” he said.
And ten Haaf said Waste Pro has seen a steady increase in the number of residents taking their blue bins to the curb.
“We’ve definitely seen participation go up,” he said. “As the younger generation grows up and they’ve been raised on recycling, it’s just become more of a natural thing to do.”
He also credited municipal governments with ongoing public education to ensure people know about the programs.
“The two cities we deal with, they are very focused on it,” ten haaf said of the island. “They communicate a lot.”
Ten Haaf also said Waste Pro works through partnerships with groups like Keep Manatee Beautiful that specialize in collecting litter, including recyclable items from AMI beaches.
“As we educate, people get better at it. The two cities, they communicate a lot. Both cities have done a lot of education and have done a really good job of helping us keeping it cleaned up. I think the future is bright. It continues every year to get a little bit better,” he said.