opinion

It's time to dump Florida's policy on plastic bags | Eve Samples

Some environmental problems are tough to tackle.

They require complicated or expensive solutions (see: Everglades restoration and sea-level rise).

Plastic pollution is not one of them.

There's a straightforward way to stem the problem. What's lacking is the will from Florida lawmakers to do so.

Vero Beach resident Megan Hoots is working to change that.

The 30-year-old is one of the people behind Plastic Free Florida, an offshoot of the Young Democrats of Indian River County that's pushing for limits on single-use plastics, including shopping bags and straws.

The effort faces serious headwinds in Florida. The state Legislature has moved in the opposite direction in recent years, preempting municipal governments from adopting local bans on single-use plastic containers.

“We should be given the opportunity to vote on this measure at a municipal level, and Tallahassee won’t let us,” Hoots said.

That didn't deter the city of Coral Gables, which last year flouted the state's preemption law and became the first city in Florida to pass a single-use plastic bag ban. A styrofoam ban Coral Gables approved the previous year was challenged in court by the Florida Retail Federation and a 7-Eleven franchise owner. A decision in favor of the city has been appealed by the retail representatives.

Why should we be open to single-use bag bans?

The typical plastic shopping bag has a useful lifespan of about 20 minutes.

You pack your groceries in it, you bring it home. Maybe you stash it in the pantry for later use picking up dog poo or holding wet bathing suits.

It may eventually head to the landfill, where it takes hundreds of years to biodegrade.

Worse, it may end up drifting into the ocean and breaking into small pieces that are eaten by marine animals. In turn, we humans eat some of those animals.

“It’s all up and down the food chain now, which is problematic — because these plastics don’t go anywhere,” Hoots said.

Plastics can remain in the ocean for hundreds of years in their original form, and even longer in small particles, according to a 2016 report from the World Economic Forum which estimated there is more than 150 million tons of plastic waste in the ocean.

"Without significant action, there may be more plastic than fish in the ocean, by weight, by 2050," the report stated.

The eventual goal of Plastic Free Florida is to endorse candidates who support limits on single-use plastics.

“We need legislators who think of this as important,” Hoot said.

The group also wants to champion restaurants and retailers that limit plastic waste. They foresee putting stickers in windows of responsible businesses — think Zagat, but for eco-friendly practices.

While the Young Democrats are spearheading the effort, the issue has attracted nonpartisan support, Hoots said.

Other states are leading the way. The National Council of State Legislatures reports:

Hawaii has a de facto ban on plastic bags because its most populous counties prohibit non-biodegradable plastic bags at checkout.

In California, 52 percent of voters approved a plastic-bag ban in 2016, enshrining a ban approved two years earlier by the state Legislature.

Cities around the country also have enacted their own bans on single-use plastic bags, including Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Other cities opted instead for plastic-bag fees, including New York and Washington, D.C.

Florida is not alone in its reluctance. States including Arizona, Idaho and Michigan also have preempted local governments from passing bans on single-use plastics.

This weekend marks Earth Day, the prime holiday for beach cleanups. To Hoots, cleanups have started to feel like an exercise in futility. The plastic just keeps coming back.

"So I’m thinking, let's do less beach cleanups and just eliminate plastics,” she said.

While we were talking by phone, a plastic bag blew across the parking lot she was standing in. She picked it up.

The free-market capitalists among us will say this is not a problem for government to solve; it's an issue between consumers and retailers.

The libertarians will say it's about personal responsibility.

There's some truth in both of those arguments.

There's also a compelling response. Those "free" plastic bags aren't actually free. They're baked into the costs of other goods we buy at the grocery and other stores.

"Retailers pay up to 5 cents per plastic bag, but the cost is hidden, passed on to shoppers through higher grocery prices. This is, no doubt, a brilliant business model for plastic manufacturers, but it has had a devastating impact on the planet," wrote Joseph Curtin, a research fellow at the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin, in a recent op-ed in The New York Times.

Reusable bags are readily available and affordable.

We know the way to address this problem. Where's the will?

It's time for Florida lawmakers to lift their prohibition of local bag bans.

Eve Samples is opinion and audience engagement editor for TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers, which is part of the USA TODAY Network. Contact her at 772-221-4217 or eve.samples@tcpalm.com. Follow her on Twitter @EveSamples.