This plastic waste was photographed along a trail in the Green Swamp recently
One of the issues that will be before the Florida Legislature in the upcoming session that begins next month is whether to allow local governments to ban or restrict the use plastic straws, plastic bags and other single-use items that are increasingly littering our land and water.
Florida Sierra opposes any legislation that would pre-empt city or county officials from enacting restrictions in response to documented problems and citizen concerns.
This issue can also provide teaching moments to provide people with information on the role microplastics, the small bits caused by the breakdown of plastic waste, in marine and freshwater ecosystems and the food we eat.
It could also reverse the decades-old trend toward being a throwaway society in the name of “convenience.”
This growing accumulation of plastic waste in the environment is not convenient for the planet.