MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Right now the world is pumping out a staggering 57 million tons of plastic pollution a year, and much of it winds up as litter that pollutes our oceans and waterways.
But Miami-Dade County is fighting back.
A new ordinance being considered could require all vendors who do business on county property to greatly reduce or even eliminate all single-use plastic.
“It’s in our water, which means it’s in our fish as we are consuming a fish,” Miami-Dade District 5 Commissioner Eileen Higgins said as she discussed the enormous plastic problem. “It’s even in our own bodies, and has been found in our brain tissue.”
Higgins has had enough, frustrated like so many South Floridians in favor of more regulations to help reduce the estimated 33 billion pounds of plastic that enter the marine environment from land-based sources every year.
In fact, according to a 2022 report from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 93% of Floridians surveyed, including residents, local leaders, and business owners, believe regulation of single-use plastics is needed.
But the Republican-controlled state legislature has blocked it. In 2008, Florida became the first state in the country to pass a law preventing local governments from regulating plastic.
So Higgins is now proposing an alternative approach.
“Well we have an opportunity to take a step in that direction in Miami-Dade County,” she said.
Higgins is the sponsor of a new county ordinance, that if passed would require all vendors who do business on Miami-Dade County properties to eliminate all single-use plastics to the greatest extent possible, including all food vendors and shops at Miami International Airport.
“We expect people selling products at our port, at our airport, in our zoo, everywhere in the county, in our county park, (to know) that we are not adding plastic into our ecosystem, we are taking it out,” she explained.
If it passes, that would mean every business currently operating on county property would have to transition from single use plastic packaging to only selling products in biodegradable or compostable packaging or highly recyclable aluminum.
“This is the right thing to do,” Higgins proclaimed. “Miami-Dade County is behind in implementing this procedure…I want to catch up.”
It may seem like an extraordinary ask, but similar programs aimed at reducing single-use plastics already exist in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and closer to home in Broward County and Miami Beach.
Miami-Dade simply wants vendors who do business on county property to help us reduce our plastic waste.
It comes at a time when the county is drowning in a waste crisis. The county currently produces 5 million tons of trash a year. That’s double the national average.
Landfill space is quickly running out, so we are trucking our waste up the state to help manage it.
“We are producing too much waste, and we don’t know what the heck to do with all of our trash,” underscored environmental activist Dave Doebler.
Less than 9% of all plastics are ever recycled. They’re either incinerated where they emit noxious fumes and greenhouses into the atmosphere, get sent to landfills, or wind up as litter.
“Everybody knows they’re not recycled,” Higgins emphasized. “I’m sitting here in a slew of nonrecyclable plastics right here by our waterside.”
But by reducing our plastic consumption and transitioning to biodegradable and compostable packaging, data shows we can greatly reduce the enormous amount of trash that the county would have to manage.
“The only solution is to eliminate the worst products and transition to products that are infinitely recyclable, like aluminum, and are biodegradable,” said Doebler.
The county has done it before, and it’s been proven to work.
“Zoo Miami went plastic-free in 2021,” reflected Zoo Miami Director Will Edgar. “That’s when we started moving towards reducing our plastic use.”
The zoo launched the pilot program for what Higgins is proposing three years ago. That’s when the site said goodbye to plastic bottles, and now only sells beverages in highly recyclable aluminum cans. Gone are plastic food containers and utensils, now biodegradable and compostable service items have taken over.
“So you have the palm leaf plates, you have the bamboo, paper boxes anything we can do to reduce the amount of plastic we put into the environment,” Edgar explained.
The switch has made an elephant-sized difference in the amount of trash the zoo now manages.
“So by going plastic-free, we have seen a big reduction in the waste…just this year, over 340,000 items have not gone into our waste stream with plastic,” he emphasized. “So that’s a huge win for us.”
It’s also a huge win for our precious backyard and our planet.
“The downside of not making this transition is we actually hurt our economy,” Higgins underscored. “We kill the sea life in our bay, and we injure our own human health.”
“We are a coastal community, and our plastic waste does end up in the ocean, so to protect our ecosystem, to protect our environment and make sure it’s sustainable,” Edgar echoed.
The hope is that if this ordinance passes, other local businesses can see how easy and cost-effective it is to transition to greener packaging and voluntarily also reduce their use of single-use plastics.
“This is the way forward, and this is a great thing to do, Edgar said. “So we want to lead that way and be that first one to go… hey you can do it, we can do it, everyone can do it.”
The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners will take up the matter on Nov. 20.
If you want your voice heard on this matter, contact your county commissioner or sign the online petition linked here.