Cocoa Beach tumbleweeds, aka disposable plastic shopping bags, seem to be everywhere. On a three-block bike ride to the beach I picked up five, and another four in the parking lot at the dune crossover. Multiply this unscientific random sample by all the streets in Cocoa Beach, and you start to realize plastic bags are a major eyesore in our community.
We are not alone. The problem is so bad nationwide that 132 cities and counties from California to New York have passed local legislation that bans the use of plastic bags in retail stores. State Senator Dwight Bullard would love to add Florida to that list. Unfortunately, in 2008 the legislature of Florida enacted a ban on banning plastic bags!
In 2010, under Governor Charlie Crist, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection proposed guidelines for regulating plastics of all sorts. However, since 2011 the state under Governor Rick Scott has yet to act on them. Current Florida law reads, “Until such time that the Legislature adopts the recommendations of the DEP, no local government, governmental agency, or state government agency may enact any rule, regulation, or ordinance regarding use, disposition, sale, prohibition, restriction, or tax of such auxiliary containers, wrappings, or disposable plastic bags.” So much for local government.
Plastic bags and most plastics for that matter, are recyclable. Yet, only about 10% of plastic bags, bottles, etc. make it to a recycling facility. Most plastics ends up in a landfill or on our streets and beaches.
So, I guess we have to put up with the eyesore of plastic bags on our streets and beaches. And besides, some tree hugger will eventually pick them up, right? Maybe. But where do most plastic bags end up? Being light, they go whichever way the wind is blowing. At the beach, they either get blown into the dunes, or they get blown offshore to become a part of the plastic soup that we call the ocean. At the current rate of accumulation, it is estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish!
Discarded plastic bags clog waterways, sewers and flood control systems, provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and kill thousands of marine turtles and birds each year that mistake the floating bags for food. Bags buried in landfills take up to 1,000 years to breakdown. But they don’t decompose. They simply break into smaller and smaller bits of plastic. In the water, they can concentrate toxins and then enter the food chain that passes these toxins on to us. Also, producing plastic requires millions of gallons of oil that could be more useful as fuel.
As the plastic pollution problem grows, so does another disturbing trend. In 2015 Arizona, Idaho, and Missouri joined Florida by enacting statewide legislation to preempt local governments from regulating the sale or use of single-use plastic bags. Also, Michigan just passed similar legislation in December 2016. Their logic: Bag bans are bad for business.
So what can we do about this trend? Refuse plastic bags. Use those canvas bags you keep in your car. On a recent grocery store trip, only one in 20 customers had reusable bags. Resist the effort to sell the environment to the highest bidding lobbyist. Write or call your legislators and let them know you support a clean, safe environment. Vote for individuals that put the environment ahead of short-term profits. After all, we all need a viable environment to survive.
See local chapter events at cocoabeach.surfrider.org
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