Local control over plastic regulation safe in Florida, for now

MIAMI – Plastic pollution continues to strangle our marine environment — and there’s no place where that is more apparent than South Florida.

Social media account Only in Dade shared a video with Local 10 News showing a dolphin swimming in a littered Biscayne Bay.

Only in Broward shared another scene from a Pompano Beach canal showing a manatee struggling to eat while surrounded by plastic debris.

Despite these startling sights, state lawmakers in Tallahassee have been trying to pass legislation to ban local governments from further regulating single-use plastic containers.

The proposed, and now stalled, SB 1162 and HB 1641 would put plastic regulation specifically about “auxiliary containers” into the hands of the state.

This means that any laws regarding single-use bags, cups, bottles, cans, or any other packaging would not be able to move forward at the local level. Additionally, any existing laws regulating these sorts of single-use plastics would be preempted to the state.

“That is a huge flaw of this bill I haven’t heard anyone realize,” Ryan Smart, executive director of the Florida Springs Council, said during a meeting of the House Agriculture, Conservation & Resiliency Subcommittee. “You are going to jeopardize the most important resources we have.”

State Rep. Jim Mooney, R-Islamorada, expressed similar concerns.

“How can you say that there’s no impact to local governments when it fact they’re continuing to clean out storm water drains?” he asked.

The sponsor of the house bill, State Rep. Brad Yeager, R-New Port Richey, argued that bans on single-use containers are too heavy a tax on small businesses.

“That, most activity is going to go on anyhow regardless of what happens here,” Yeager argued. “With that said, I think we need to protect small businesses and this does that.”

But at what cost? Data from a 2021 Florida Department of Environmental Protection retail bags report shows that some 7,000 tons of plastic entered Florida’s marine environment in 2020 alone.

Once it is in the environment, it’s estimated that it could take up to 450 years for some single-use plastics to biodegrade.

Throughout the state, at least a dozen municipalities have placed laws on the books regulating single-use plastics.

Still, local cleanup organizations report that the tsunami of plastic trash has not slowed down. A 2022 global study found that less than 9% of all plastics are ever recycled.

“This is not a solution,” commented Clean This Beach Up founder MJ Algarra. “What we do here every single weekend, picking up trash from our shorelines and beaches, we are done… we need change starting from the top.”

The largest international ocean conservation advocacy group, Oceana, is another environmental organization that has been fighting the proposed legislation.

“Make no mistake, this is a harmful bill, it’s going to lead to more trash and more plastic pollution into our waterways and our oceans,” Oceana Field Campaign Manager Hunter Miller asserted. “So if this bill passes, it really slams that toolbox shut and puts a lock on it… it really takes us out of the picture of being a part of the solution.”

In 2015, Miami Beach prohibited the sale and use of polystyrene, commonly referred to as Styrofoam.

Following that ban, the state of Florida adopted a statute that preempted any polystyrene ordinance enacted by a local government before 2016. Under that statute, Miami Beach’s ban was safe. But, the proposed HB 1641 and SB 1162 would change that.

Volunteer Clean-Up President Dave Doebler was among those community members who pushed for the Miami Beach ordinance in the first place.

“Styrofoam was the number one product we were finding on our beach clean ups and in our waterway cleanups,” Doebler explained. “The problem with foam is that it’s very brittle and it breaks apart very easily into teeny tiny little pieces. When this gets on our streets, it goes into the storm drain system and the pollution controls are unable to stop it.”

Ninety-three percent of all Floridians surveyed in that 2021 FDEP report said that they believe that regulation of single-use plastics is a necessity.

Still, powerful lobbying groups pushing for the bills say that local governments should stay out of it.

“We shouldn’t be dictating and saying, ‘Hey you can’t do it in this area, because it’s going to be impossible for businesses to compete long term and it’s also going to drive up costs for consumers,’” Americans for Prosperity Florida director Skylar Zander said when speaking with Local 10 Environmental Advocate Louis Aguirre.

“So the argument that you’re making is that this is good for business?” Aguirre asked.

“It’s good for business and it’s good for consumers overall,” Zander maintained.

“But it’s not good for the environment,” Aguirre underlined.

“Well, look, what’s good for the environment is that if people really care about this issue, they can bring their reusable bag to the store,” said Zander.

Environmental advocates say that putting the burden on consumers is not the solution.

“That trash is affecting our community, we need to be able to control it,” emphasized David Cullen, of Sierra Club Florida. “The bill says that the answer is do nothing, that cannot be the answer for Florida.”

As of Tuesday, SB 1126 has officially been “temporarily postponed”. Local 10 reached out to bill sponsor, State Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, to find out why, but has not heard back.

As for the related HB 1641, future discussion has not been scheduled for the remainder of the regular legislative session. We reached out to the sponsor of that legislation as well and did not hear back from them either.

Environmentalists are cautiously optimistic, but warn that the legislation could come back. Local 10 News and Don’t Trash Our Treasure will continue to follow this closely.