No. CS/SB 240
Filed under Environment & Water.
Auxiliary Containers; Preempting the regulation of auxiliary containers to the state; providing exceptions; requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a uniform ordinance for the use and disposition of single-use, nonrecyclable auxiliary containers; prohibiting the use, sale, or distribution of certain single-use auxiliary containers on such lands; repealing a provision relating to the regulation of polystyrene products preempted to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFlorida already barred cities and counties from regulating bags, cups, bottles, cans, and similar packaging on their own. That ban was written as temporary; the old language triggering its end is now deleted, making it permanent.
Three narrow carve-outs survive: local rules on glass containers or single-use plastics on public property, and any container ordinance already on the books before January 1, 2026.
The state environmental agency must now design one statewide model ordinance for single-use, non-recyclable packaging, covering bans, fees, deposits, and business penalties. Local governments can adopt it, but cannot write their own version.
On state park land, polystyrene foam containers are banned outright, and single-use plastic ones must be eliminated as much as possible. A separate polystyrene law aimed at a different state agency is repealed.
AIA city, county, or other local governmental agency can no longer pass its own rule, regulation, or ordinance on the use, sale, disposal, restriction, or taxation of bags, cups, bottles, cans, or similar packaging.
AICurrent law frames the local preemption as temporary, lasting only until the Legislature acts on a departmental report; that conditional trigger is deleted, so the ban on local rules no longer expires on its own.
AIA local ordinance restricting auxiliary containers that was already enacted before January 1, 2026 stays exempt from the preemption, even though a similar ordinance passed after that date would now be blocked.
AIA local government may still restrict glass containers, or single-use plastic containers specifically, on land it owns or controls, even though it cannot regulate auxiliary containers anywhere else.
AIThe state's environmental agency must design a single uniform ordinance covering single-use, nonrecyclable containers, after holding at least three public workshops, for local governments to optionally adopt instead of writing their own.
AIWithin land managed by the Division of Recreation and Parks, selling, distributing, or using a single-use container made with polystyrene foam becomes flatly illegal, not merely discouraged.
AIBy the end of 2026, the department must publish a plan covering data collection, policy gaps, litter-reduction strategies, funding, and a competitive grant program for local governments and nonprofits.
AISection 500.90, a standalone statute outside this chapter, is eliminated outright, folding whatever it covered into this bill's single consolidated framework instead.