Indian River Lagoon Day was held on Saturday, October 18. It was a beautiful day for families to enjoy the fresh air, great live music by Miranda Realino, and good food from local vendors. We had over 35 environmental and arts & crafts vendors, and more than 200 people attended.  Kids learned to fish with Anglers for Conservation, and gardeners learned to make a rain barrel, which they got to take home. Everyone had the opportunity to learn about the many ways to get involved in the effort to protect and restore the Indian River Lagoon.

The City of Melbourne Streets and Stormwater Division also brought their camera and vac truck for the public to see.

The City of Melbourne joined with the City of West Melbourne, the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Department, Lagoon Life and the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program to host the annual event. We are grateful to Custom Tintz for helping to sponsor the stage this year, as well as RezPro for providing the stage and audio.

On Saturday, October 25 the ECO Division staff joined the Spooktacular event at the Melbourne Auditorium to help raise awareness about plastic pollution while handing out candy and spreading some Halloween cheer. The ECO Division decided to get a little "trashy" by creating a plastic bag monster, reminding everyone that these everyday items can have scary effects on our environment. Plastic bags are a major issue for stormwater systems, recycling facilities and the environment locally and globally. Many end up in landfills, the Indian River Lagoon, or the ocean, where they can harm wildlife. Birds often mistake shredded plastic for food, and sea turtles can confuse floating shopping bags with jellyfish.

What you can do:

• Avoid plastic bags at the store—choose paper, cardboard, or reusable bags instead.
• Bring your own bags whenever you shop.
• Pick up litter, especially plastic bags, since all drains lead to our waterways.
• Recycle plastic bags at drop-off locations like Publix or Walmart.
• Contact your grocery store and encourage them to reduce or eliminate plastic bag use—if stores like Aldi, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, and Costco can do it, others can too!

Together, we can make a big difference in keeping our community—and our lagoon—clean and healthy. 🌊💚

The City of Melbourne’s ECO Division continues to take action to reduce high contamination rates in curbside recycling across the community. To make recycling easier and more effective, the City launched the Curb Contamination Program in 2019. This initiative provides residents with personalized feedback and education to help everyone recycle right. Recently, Todd Cook joined the ECO Division as the new Solid Waste & Recycling Coordinator and will be leading the program moving forward.

The program provides a more personalized guidance to Melbourne residents to help them understand what is and is no longer accepted in curbside pickup. Recycling carts are checked for contamination on Wednesday mornings, which is recycling day throughout Melbourne. Informational door hangers are placed at homes where recycling mishaps are found to try to combat recycling confusion.

This also provides the opportunity for conversations as people notice the inspections. Residents also get a new recycling sticker placed on their lid to further instruct them on what is and is not acceptable in the cart.

There have been three rounds of inspections since October 8. Of those, about 39 percent of them had items that didn’t belong in the carts. This is a smaller percentage than when the ECO Division first started the program with 62 percent contamination in 2019 after four rounds of inspections.

Plastic bags are still, by far, the most common item found that shouldn’t be in the carts. While the bags can be recycled at many grocery stores, they are not acceptable in curbside recycling carts. Plastic bags get tangled up in the machinery at the recycling facility where Melbourne’s recycling goes for processing.

In addition, Waste Management no longer accepts clam shell containers, the type that hold strawberries and salad mixes. They have never accepted polystyrene, such as egg cartons. Polystyrene products can be recycled at Publix.

If you are a City of Melbourne resident or business owner within city limits, you can request a recycling decal for your cart by contacting the ECO Division.
Call: 321-608-5080
Email: recycle@mlbfl.org or click the button below.