Beautification, Recycling Awards Presented To Clearwater

CLEARWATER, FL — The city of Clearwater has received Keep Pinellas Beautiful's first innovation award.

The Keep Pinellas Beautiful Innovation Award was given for Clearwater's innovative trash receptacles that are designed to prevent trash from escaping onto the beach and into the water and to help curb trash and litter challenges at Clearwater Beach.

The Underground Refuse System is a trash and recycling vault, in which trash and recyclables are placed in underground containers.

With traditional trash receptacles, wind and rain can cause trash to spill onto the ground, blowing around the beach and becoming litter. This new contained system has larger collection capacity that can increase the collection efficiency by increasing volume and decreasing collection frequency.

"The city is honored to be recognized for our adding the Underground Refuse System containers to our solid waste and recycling collection abilities," said Earl Gloster, director of Clearwater Solid Waste & Recycling. "We're the second city in the country to install these innovative systems, behind Kissimmee, and we're pleased to see several solid waste agencies across the nation are following suit and adding them in their communities, too."

In addition to receiving the Keep Pinellas Beautiful Innovation Award, Clearwater Recreation Supervisor Samantha Moullet received an Outstanding Program Support Award from Keep Pinellas Beautiful.

She was recognized for efforts to help organize cleanup and beautification efforts, and especially last year's Big Clearwater Cleanup 2021.

"Keep Pinellas Beautiful has been an amazing partner in our efforts to keep Clearwater bright and beautiful," said Moullet. "We are so thankful for their support, and we are excited to build on our current partnerships to create more opportunities for volunteers to be involved in future restoration and beautification projects."\Keep Pinellas Beautiful is a nonprofit organization based out of St. Petersburg, which aims to conserve and beautify the natural environment.

To learn more, visit KPBCares.org.

To learn more aboutClearwater's sustainability and resiliency efforts, visitMyClearwater.com/Sustainability.