By Catherine Card, City of Destin PIO
In 2017, the City of Destin started its Leave No Trace initiative to promote environmental awareness and pride in our city. We love Destin and we all play a vital role and must be conscious of our actions and how they can impact our environment and city.
Through a partnership between the City of Destin, Okaloosa County and the Okaloosa Tourist Development Department, our beaches and beach trash cans are cleaned and emptied on a regular basis. In 2019, more than 1.3 million pounds of trash was collected from Destin and Okaloosa Island beaches. In 2020, about 900,000 pounds of trash was collected off the same beaches in a year of COVID-19 related travel impacts. It is our hope that residents and visitors will take individual pride and initiative to ensure that our emerald waters and sugar white beaches remain beautiful.
Our Leave no Trace initiative goes beyond our beaches and waterways. We want our residents, businesses and visitors to take pride in our roadways, front yards, our parks as well as our entire city.
The Destin City Council, Mayor, and staff hope residents, local businesses and visitors will join the effort and support the Leave No Trace initiative, and here is how you can participate. Businesses can promote the initiative by displaying the Leave No Trace logo on their digital billboards or simply post “Leave No Trace” on their marquee sign. We kindly ask all residents and visitors to remove all the items that they bring with them. We ask they take pride in Destin and keep our beautiful city clean. It is that simple.
The city works with many partners to collaborate on various clean-ups throughout the year and operates an Adopt-A-Street Program which allows local families, businesses, and community groups to perform a valuable community service by adopting sections of a street to keep clear of litter and debris. For more information, please visit www.cityofdestin.com/leavenotrace.
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