While the city of St. Petersburg has taken steps to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in our waterways, banning straws is only a drop in the bucket.

Our city has inadequate trash receptacles in the city parks, and very few recycling bins. Moreover, the design of the trash receptacles means that on windy days, as you often find on the waterfront, the trash bags are blown inside out and the trash scattered.

This is a very simple, common sense solution - more receptacles, more recycling bins, and adding a lid or some other device to prevent the trash bags from being blown around by the wind.