Microplastics are making animals sick and contaminating our food sources, and nature isn't making things any easier by throwing pollution-causing hurricanes at us. Taking responsibility for how we impact the environment is even more important now than it was when Tampa City Council tried to pass laws #banning styrofoam and single-use plastics a few years ago.
That effort failed because the rules could not be legally enforced. Just making more laws and regulations is not the right way to fix the problem, though… because even if we were allowed to change the laws, it would be too costly to enforce these new policies. Can you imagine how many people the EPA, police, and courts would have to hire in order to make sure the regulations were being followed?!?!
Since we don't have the infrastructure in place to ensure that people follow any new environmental regulations, this puts us in a difficult spot. We still need to work on making our environment healthier, but the only way to do this is to convince residents that they can and should change their habits of their own volition. Even if we could pass more laws and mandates it would only make people feel that they were losing their sense of personal choice in the matter. No one likes a bully. Trying to force everyone to change all at once would be very counterproductive because it would just make environmentalists look like they were trying to exercise control over others.
What we actually need is more programs like Reduce Your Use Tampa Bay. This group increases public awareness of small changes we can all make in our day-to-day lives that will affect the environment in a highly positive way. They suggest that people bring their own reusable utensils and straws when dining out, and they also encourage residents to share their progress on social media using the hashtag #ReduceYourUse. This makes people want to make better, more environmentally-conscious decisions so that they can show their friends.
In conclusion, passing more laws aimed at reducing pollution is not the best way to go. Getting the residents of Tampa to WANT to change is the only way we can really improve our impact upon the environment and decrease the use of disposable plastic items.
