Stop Plastic Preemption Expansion in Florida

Since 2008, Florida has been paralyzed from taking meaningful action to address plastic pollution that plagues the state's ocean and beaches. The existing state preemption that took local government's ability to reduce or eliminate the sources of plastic that clog sandy beaches, harm waterways, and negatively impact the state's tourism economy. 

While Surfrider Foundation's Florida network has rigorously advocated to repeal this preemption and enact laws that prevent easily littered items  and plastic from entering marine habitats, the state has yet to enact any of the regulatory and non-regulatory measures recommended by the Department of Environmental Protection. 

During the 2024 legislative session, members of the Florida House and Senate introduced legislation (SB1126/HB1641) which would have expanded and entrenched the existing preemption on the regulation of most plastics to include single-use and reusable bottles, bags, cups, containers, and wrappings sourced from a variety of materials to the state, and not allow any agency or entity to legislate on this issue. 

Given Surfrider’s long history opposing the existing preemption, our network ardently opposed this legislation while it was viable during the session. Staff and activists statewide targeted key committee members in the House and Senate to oppose the bill, lobbied against the bill during Florida Healthy Beaches Day, sent letters and testified against the bill in committee meetings, and leaders from our Ocean Friendly Restaurants Program and the Tiny Turtle published an Op-Ed  to stop this egregious preemption expansion with the support from partners at Florida Springs Council, Oceana, Sea Turtle Conservancy, Sierra Club, and Ocean Conservancy. 

The bill seemed all but dead after it was temporarily postponed from two committee agenda due to the public outcry opposing more preemption in Florida. However, despite the bill not moving forward, there was a very real chance that the bill sponsors could have identified another viable vehicle for this bill language as an amendment and moved it to the finish line. Surfrider vigilantly watched for an amendment that never came to fruition. Our Florida network is thrilled that the bill died quietly when the session ended on March 8, 2024 and celebrates this victory in the Sunshine State!