In 2008 Publix through the façade of the Florida Retail Federation, paid to have preemptive laws sponsored to prevent municipalities from controlling how plastic should be distributed in their communities. The move was a classic example, that “Pollution is typically an issue of convenience”. It was more convenient for Publix to hand out plastic bags for customer convenience, than alternative methods. We all have to make choices and we typically chose the easiest, but sometimes that is wasteful.
It is easy to see why Publix wanted to protect their ability to distribute plastic. However, this conflicts with local residents, their municipalities and the elected officials within, who are closest to the needs of their community and have the best interest of the communities and ecosystems in mind, not corporations. Local municipalities typically make decisions with greater sensitivity, more appropriate methods, insightful visions, compatible changes, coordinated rules and are best suited to ensure communities can be responsible effective stewards of their environments and public health. In the interest of their own convenience, Publix thought ahead and has prevented communities from doing their best to manage their responsibilities to protect environmental and public health.
If all of this sounds ridiculous and frustrating, then read on!
Publix and the Florida Retail Federation, their legislative façade, are ridiculous! A great corporate leader, Jack Welsh, who brought GE to a point where it was the largest and most productive company on the planet, did so with a philosophy that those doing the job, knew the most about the job. The people who know the most about the job of taking care of where they live and caring for the public and environment health are those that live there. Not Publix!
Consider how irrational this really is just in terms of economics; Publix financed enacting a law, continued to finance defending it in court, so they can incur the expense to give away environmentally detrimental plastic bags and containers. Plastic bags and polystyrene containers are forms of plastic that represent some of the worst single use retail distributed plastics polluting our environment. Even worse, great alternatives exist, that represent no harm and would remove all economic burden from Publix!
Who knows what the finance experts in Publix are thinking, but it seems obvious that the cost and the negative implications of single use plastic bags, when reusable, or biodegradable alternatives are available that customers would have to pay for, would relieve them of this cost burden and ugly reputation of distributing plastic bags.
We can wait for the court ruling, but that still does not serve the greater good we all need to achieve as communities. We need to take back our rights for “Home Rule”. The Governor has shown that he feels this is the appropriate structure of decision making in FL by his veto of the plastic straw ban that passed the legislature last year. We need to support this philosophy and take control of our rights to make decisions in the best interest of our communities. There are other areas where the FL legislature is threatening to further restrict municipal decision making, so stopping this behavior is critical to our future.
Here is how we do this:
Timing is important! Sen Linda Steward has sponsored SB 182 that serves to vacate the preemptive laws currently in place. (https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/182)
Our goals are to get this bill passed, which will return Home Rule on plastic distribution to municipalities. This powerful statement will dissuade other attempts to take away Home Rule from our communities.
We need a common front as coalition of communities who wish to take back our control of these issues that have been stripped by corporate financed influence of our political process. Home Rule should be assured!Municipalities should participate directly and by gathering the politically active environmental groups within their community to provide support and create a louder unified voice. Our movement is call Plastic Free Florida (PFF). We started as Plastic Free Keys (PFK), incentivized by the FL Keys National Marine Sanctuary, who can cry for help, but cannot participate in any political action. PFK serves as a voice for their goals on the single use plastic distribution issue and PFF will carry a larger unified voice.Municipalities can support this initiative in any way that fits compatibly with the interest of their community. We ask that municipalities go on record to say they support the goals of the PFF initiative and list themselves as a supporter of the PFF initiative in support of SB 182. Permitting PFF to display a collective set of municipal and NGO logos to demonstrate the scale of the citizenry in support.This movement is not a radicalized, hence the scope is narrow. We believe in affecting decision making through unifying voices, which together become amplified. Seeing many communities bind together in a public display of unity is powerful and beneficial in many ways.Our scope and goal are narrow, allowing us to bind together, but the effect will be broad in returning Home Rule to municipalities. Timely action is critical given the legislature begins active session in January
January 11 – 12 is the target date for unified statewide protests of Publix and the plastic preemption laws.We work with NGOs to coordinate statewide protests of Publix and expose the façade of the Florida RetailFederation, that Publix finances to impose their political will statewide in Florida. PFF statements should highlight that Publix could save money and the environment by not distributing single use plastic and the importance of returning “Home Rule” to our municipalities. Our first step is to win on Plastic! Plastic FreeFlorida! A statewide protest needs to start in January, just prior to the regular legislative session that begins January 14 . We are targeting January 11 – 12, from 9 to noon, as unified protest days for all municipalities and NGOs. We need to make an impression statewide!The original Polystyrene preemption required the FDEP to provide a report to the Legislature by 2010. This report provides comprehensive changes to single use plastic distribution in compliment to the most successful programs in effect anywhere. We should support the 2010 FDEP recommendations. You can download the report via this link (https://www.facebook.com/download/preview/500109353934558 )
We want to affect Publix image and at the Point of Sale (POS), via voluntarily boycott. The goal is to have Publix abandon their plastic position and endorse SB 182. It will save them money and be a step in the right direction for our communities and ecosystems.
Suggested changes to existing Florida laws (SB 182) have already been provided to Governor DeSantis. His past veto on the Straw Preemption, supported by his continued consistent performance on environmental issues, suggest he is favorable. Our support of his changes to Florida’s environmental posture and actions to return home rule, needs to be clear and strong. We need Gov DeSantis to ask the legislature to proceed on vacating these laws.
Going forward, plastic is an exceedingly complex issue that will require research and improvements in how we use it, distribute it, recycle it and identify beneficial alternatives. Our communities and state are best served by developing human resources, in the form of committees focused on these issues, developing expertise and advising on best practices within our communities and state.
Knowing this is being shared at the time of the holidays, it is likely that many will not be able to become engaged until after Christmas and others after Jan 1. The goal is to connect with as many municipalities and active NGOs within those areas as possible. We suggest starting a public communication campaign by Jan 6th and we hope to have full momentum and a state-wide public (Publix) outcry by Jan 11. We need to take Home Rule back!
This was a disparate movement in the Keys that had been talked about and attempted over a long period of time by many groups, but FKEC.org served to coordinate all interested groups and initiatives into the PFK movement after the FL Keys National Marine Sanctuary cried for help, in their own way. This resulted in Islamorada and Key West moving to develop comprehensive single use plastic regulation. There is no doubt that all the municipalities in the Keys are now focused on these needed improvements. We applaud the bold leadership that Coral Gables has demonstrated on this issue and see our success in rallying around their continued fight.
Please connect with us, communicate, connect relationships to add strength to PFF, assign personnel and feel the passion of seeing this through to success. We will win, take back home rule and protect what we love!
Barry Wray
Executive Director
Florida Keys Environmental Coalition
[email protected]
