Spectrum Concierge Partners with #FillABag, Turning Naples Beach Walks into Meaningful Cleanups
Spectrum Concierge LLC, a home management company serving the Naples and Bonita Springs area, has recently taken a big step towards keeping Naples’ beautiful beaches even cleaner. The City of Naples has recently approved the installation of a Fill-A-Bag beach cleanup station at Lowdermilk Beach Park, which will be installed later this month. Each station is equipped with reusable buckets that anyone can grab to fill up with ocean pollution.
The owners of Spectrum Concierge, Dave and Steph Feightner, recently challenged their staff to form internal action committees dedicated to better serve the community, improve the health of their employees and the environment. This project embodies all those characteristics.
“The concept is quite simple; We provide reusable buckets that you can take on your walks and if you see something that doesn’t belong on our beaches such as plastic or trash, pick it up and throw it away. At the end of your walk, simply empty the bucket and know that you are making a difference in keeping our beaches litter-free. These beach cleanup stations are at the community’s disposal and are meant to turn your regular walk along the beach into a meaningful cleanup at your own leisure” said Spectrum Concierge Marketing Manager, Robert Peia.
It’s a global crisis. Each year, 1.3 billion tons of waste is generated around the world and more than half the planet’s population doesn’t have access to regular trash collection. A lot of that trash winds up in the ocean and onto our beaches, our mangroves, and in our waterways. Public works employees simply can’t keep up. “We got into the habit of bringing a bag with us when we hit the beach and picking up any trash we encountered, and over time, we asked ourselves ‘What if we could make it easier for others to engage in this behavior?’” said Fill-a-Bag co-founder Manny Rionda, adding that once it was full of garbage they shared a picture of it and got in the habit of using social media to raise awareness.
That is how the Fill-A-Bag organization was born. After winning a grant from the Miami Public Space challenge in 2018, Key Biscayne residents Manny Rionda, Nancy Davis and James Duncan designed #FillABag stations to empower people to turn daily walks into meaningful beach cleanups. The whitewashed 6’ post has 4 cobalt blue hooks and provides beachgoers with on-demand reusable bags and repurposed buckets to fill with trash during their strolls. These stations are strategically installed near trash and recycling bins, where collected trash may be responsibly discarded. Although the initiative was born and raised in Key Biscayne, Fill-A-Bag Stations have been activated throughout Florida’s surrounding coastlines. Besides beaches; parks, neighborhoods, open and public spaces all qualify for activation. There are currently over 30 Fill-A-Bag Stations and the first location on Florida’s west coast was activated earlier this year at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park.
