The city of Orlando is known above all else for its world-class amusement parks. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people visit the city every year from all across the globe. They might never step foot on one of Florida’s famous beaches. But in the Sunshine State, where the ocean is never more than 60 miles away, all water is connected—and what happens on land has downstream impacts on the coasts. Street litter can travel through canals and streams and out into the ocean.
In fact, Ocean Conservancy conducted a study with University of Georgia’s Circularity Informatics Lab to investigate where waste comes from, how it moves through a community, and where it ends up. The assessment found that plastic fragments, tobacco products and food-related plastic packaging are among the area’s most common litter items, while plastic bags are the largest source of recycling-bin contamination. The assessment also found that Orlando uses more plastic-foam takeout packaging than other Florida cities studied, highlighting opportunities to reduce waste before it reaches streets, waterways and the ocean.
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Working together
Along the way, plastic pollution can harm fish, birds and manatees. Even small amounts of ingested plastic can have devastating consequences. Concerned residents of Orlando are tired of picking up litter and worried about the impacts of plastics on wildlife, the environment and human health. Now, they are working together to reduce the amount of waste the community generates. In 2025, Ocean Conservancy worked with Florida Sea Grant and IDEAS For Us to host a series of workshops focused on identifying opportunities to reduce plastic waste throughout the city—as as part of Ocean Conservancy’s broader Plastic Free Cities work in the state. The workshops highlighted schools and large-scale venues as two categories ripe with opportunity to reduce waste and raise awareness about plastic pollution, among both residents and visitors to the region. In the final workshop, key stakeholders developed a plan to begin a coordinated coalition to take action against plastic pollution, starting with these categories.
Zero Waste Orlando
In 2026, Zero Waste Orlando was formed by the same stakeholders who participated in the workshops, with Orlando-based staff at Keep Orlando Beautiful leading the coalition and Ocean Conservancy facilitating its work. The coalition aims to reduce waste through behavior change and local policy. By bringing together business owners, policy experts, schoolteachers and long-term residents, the coalition draws on local knowledge and diverse expertise to identify practical solutions. This hyper-local model has demonstrated success elsewhere in Florida, including through the Zero Waste Miami coalition, and creates opportunities for collaboration across sectors.
Zero Waste Orlando is already taking steps to turn its goals into action. Members have formed subcommittees focused on reducing waste in schools and improving local policies relating to waste, with immediate plans to increase composting literacy in elementary schools this academic year. These efforts offer a starting point for helping students understand what happens to waste and how everyday choices can reduce the amount sent to landfills. The coalition also has opportunities to address waste challenges identified in the assessment, from finding alternatives to single-use food containers to improving recycling education and advocating for plastic-reduction policies. As members develop their strategy, these findings can help guide their priorities.
While Zero Waste Orlando has only just begun, it provides a platform for passionate residents to coordinate their efforts and work together to build a cleaner, healthier, plastic-free Orlando. If you are local and want to join the coalition, email Florida@oceanconservancy.org. To find and join a plastic-reduction coalition in your region, you can use the Story of Stuff’s “Reuse Changemaker Map.”
Tackle Plastic Pollution
The post How Orlando Communities are Tackling Plastic Pollution appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
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