Alexandria Gordon
St. Petersburg, FL
Inspiring Campuses to Go Plastic-Free
During her second week at Eckerd College, Alexandria Gordon began working with the student-run nonprofit Florida PIRG to register young people to vote. Her efforts helped increase voter turnout by 350 percent at her local precinct during the 2018 elections.
Encouraged by this success, Gordon, 21, decided to use her new organizing skills to address Eckerd’s plastic pollution problem. She launched a campaign through Florida PIRG to get the college to sign the “Break Free From Plastic Pledge” and eliminate all nonessential single-use plastics. After months of campaigning, Eckerd College became the first campus in the nation to implement the pledge.
Gordon now works with campuses from coast to coast to help them adopt their own version of the pledge and is working to build support for a federal Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act.