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Bill of the Week: Regulation of Auxiliary Containers
By the SCCF Environmental Policy Team
Each week of Florida’s 2025 Legislative Session, SCCF is providing a deeper dive into what an introduced bill aims to do and why we think it is important. Our bill this week is another familiar face for those who followed along last legislative session. Like the ‘Safe Waterways Act‘ we discussed last week, ‘Regulation of Auxiliary Containers’ (SB 1822/HB 565) was also introduced last session, though it didn’t gain as much traction as the Safe Waterways Act, and it ultimately failed.
This bill preempts local governments from regulating re-usable or single-use plastics packaging, removing a key ability of counties and municipalities to protect their natural resources. SB 1822 was presented and passed by a vote of 5-3 this week in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, despite a large opposition from those concerned with the growing pollution problem in Florida. The identical House bill, HB 565, has passed its first committee and will be heard next in the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee.
Plastic pollution is not a new phenomena in Florida. In response to growing concerns regarding the impact of retail plastic bags on the environment, in 2008 the legislature passed HB 7135, which, in part, required Department of Environmental Protection to analyze the need for new or different regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings, or disposable plastic bags used by consumers to carry products from retail establishments. DEP’s analysis was submitted to the legislature in 2010. In 2021, the legislature requested an update. DEP submitted the new recommendations in December 2021, highlighting the impact that plastic pollution has on our state and our waterways.
The report highlighted how 7,000 tons of plastic entered Florida’s marine environment in 2020 alone. Once in the environment, plastic pollution can entangle or endanger wildlife that mistake it for food, it can be toxic when ingested, and it can provide a vector for coral disease transport. Additionally, plastics can take hundreds of years to break down, and many degrade into smaller microplastics that continue to negatively impact marine ecosystems in ways we are only beginning to understand.
Supporters of the bill claim the act is necessary to eliminate the potential patchwork of different rules and regulations and provides consistency for businesses. If the patchwork is such an impediment that it warrants sweeping preemption from Tallahassee, it is possible to enact a blanket ban on plastic auxiliary containers that would remove any patchwork while protecting the environment.
As it stands, local governments are prohibited from enacting any rules, regulations, or ordinances related to the use of auxiliary containers until the legislature adopts DEP’s study recommendations. However, inherent in this bill is a trend we have been seeing coming from Tallahassee in recent years. By preempting local governments, our leaders are moving decision-making away from the local governments and concentrating power in the hands of the state.
Florida is a massive state, and one-size-fits-all solutions do not make sense for our many disparate communities. If Sarasota leaders find it necessary to enact specific regulations that protect their beaches, it doesn’t make sense to force Gainesville to adapt to new regulations that may not be in their best interest. This is, in effect, what is happening with the sweeping preemption efforts originating in Tallahassee.
If local leaders, who best understand the unique needs of the communities in which they live and work, feel that it is necessary to ban certain types of auxiliary containers, they should have the power to do so, and not have their hands tied by legislation being enacted hundreds of miles from their homes.
Having predictable, common-sense regulation is desirable to support our business communities, but with a massive and eclectic state like Florida, it’s important we let our local governments lead their own communities to the correct solutions.
SCCF has and continues to oppose this bill and will work with the bill sponsors to address plastic pollution, which has a direct impact on our communities, coastal wildlife, and their habitats.