Update: According to a museum representative, the Museum of Ice Cream has hired "sprinkle cleaners" to attend to the museum and its surrounding grounds and storm drains. Museum officials are also in the process of creating a biodegradable sprinkle to replace the current plastic toppings.
Previously: The Sprinkle Pool — a ball pit filled with billions of plastic replicas of the iconic candy topping — at Miami's Museum of Ice Cream may be having a not-so-sweet environmental impact.
According to the Miami New Times, the city of Miami has issued a sanitation violation and fined the museum $1,000 due to the sprinkles causing marine debris. The plastic sprinkles cling to guests' clothing as they swim/selfie through the pool, which the museum-goers then unwittingly carry out onto the streets of the coastal city.
At press time, the Museum of Ice Cream had not responded to questions from the Miami New Times.
A local environmentalist first called attention to the issue, filming the "sprinkle litter" lining 3400 Collins Avenue, which he says will wash into storm drains and out to the oceans and waterways during the rain.
City spokeswoman Melissa Berthier said the museum is working to establish better cleaning measures, and is changing the location of the pool to the beginning of the tour to keep the sprinkles near the ice cream, not the beaches.
h/t: Curbed
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