HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — For the 2023 event season, the City of Tampa's Department of Solid Waste & Environmental Program Management will launch the Bead Reuse Program.
Gasparilla goers are encouraged to bring leftover beads to any of the following collection locations during their regular business hours starting on Monday, January 30, through May 2023:
- Kate Jackson Community Center – 821 S Rome Ave.
- Loretta Ingraham Recreation Complex – 1611 N Hubert Ave.
- Copeland Park Center – 11001 N 15th St.
- MacDonald Training Center – 5420 W Cypress St.
For the Bead Reuse Program, the City of Tampa will collaborate with the MacDonald Training Center, a non-profit devoted to empowering people with disabilities.
The program gives unwanted beads a home and prevents them from polluting Tampa's waste stream.
The Training Center's clients develop vocational skills while cleaning, repackaging and reusing beads for the following parade season.
Over 10,000 lbs. of beads have been delivered to the MacDonald Training Center since the program's start, thanks to volunteers from Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful and city personnel.
That amounts to more than 330,000 separate bead necklaces.
Microplastics, which are smaller particles of plastic that never dissolve, are formed by beads after a thousand years.
Beads and other non-biodegradable materials threaten both our ecosystem and marine life.
In natural ecosystems, these microplastics continue to be a problem.
For additional information on the Bead Reuse Collection Program, CLICK HERE.
