Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The city of Key West's public trash cans are getting funny looks these days, which is exactly what the Clean and Green Committee members wanted when they installed anti-littering signs on 133 of them.

"Hemingway didn't litter here," states one sign, which was the first to be affixed to a garbage can in front of City Hall. Other slogans include, "No Key lime pie until you pick up your trash," "The fish already ate, give that trash to me," and "Don't drop that cigarette, give that butt to me."

The new Trash Talk program was the brainchild of environmental activist and volunteer Erika Biddle, who worked with local author David Sloan to come up with the wording on each sign.

The signs are being installed where they make the most sense. For example, the one that states, "Joe may be sloppy, but he didn't litter," will be on garbage cans near Sloppy Joe's, while the ones pertaining to the fish will mark cans at White Street Pier, Sloan said.

A group of about 10 volunteers and members of the city's Clean and Green Committee, along with city staff, spent Monday affixing the black and silver signs to garbage cans on Duval and Greene streets, as well as some at Mallory Square, the Historic Seaport, White Street Pier and Southernmost Point.

Annalise Mannix, the city's director of environmental programs, commended the Clean and Green Committee and the Trash Talk program.

"Can you imagine tourists stopping to take pictures of our trash cans?" Mannix said, laughing.

The city paid for the adhesive signs, said committee member Bridget McDonald, who emphasized that Biddle has been spearheading anti-littering efforts throughout the city.

"We're also trying to get business owners to adopt a recycling bin adjacent to every city garbage can," Mannix said.

The new recycling receptacles could be emptied every day and night and added to the business's regular recycling, she said, as long as that business already pays for a commercial recycling account with Waste Management.

There currently are 183 businesses who pay for such recycling.

Committee members suggested publicizing the list of businesses that pay to recycle, and encouraging people to patronize those businesses.

Mannix agreed to provide that list to the committee.

mbolen@keysnews.com