ORLANDO, Fla. — Anyone doing business on Orlando-owned property must ditch plastic straws and plastic foam cups.
- City says single-use plastics end up in recycling system
- 70 businesses that don't fall under policy have embraced it anyway
- READ IT: City ordinance on single-use plastics ban (PDF)
- RELATED: Orlando Bans Single-Use Plastic, Styrofoam from its Venues
Earlier in the year, the Orlando City Council voted to ban single-use plastic and Styrofoam-like products. The ban started on Tuesday, October 1.
Crhis Castro, Orlando's director of sustainability and resilience, cited three reasons for the ban:
- The city wants to keep city-owned parks and venues clean
- Plastic and Styrofoam-like products are not biodegradable
- Those items often end up in the recycling system, where they do not belong.
"We see a huge challenge with contamination in our recycling stream, and the three biggest culprits happen to be expanded polystyrene, plastic bags, and plastic straws," Castro said. "One way for us to minimize the contamination of waste going into the recycling (system) is to just eliminate those products from anything that the city offers on city property."
Because the ban only applies to businesses operating on city-owned land, this would only impact vendors at venues such the Amway Center, food trucks, and farmers markets at city-owned parks.
Orlando International Airport is not included in the policy.
For any organization that violates the policy, the city could withhold a contract renewal or keep a deposit. The city itself has done an extensive inventory to make sure it is not ordering any more single-use products, it said.
City leaders also said that more than 70 businesses not impacted by the new policy are nevertheless on board with the idea and replacing their single-use products with biodegradable and recyclable products. Those businesses include First Watch, Hammered Lamb, Se7enBites, Hawkers Asian Street Fare, Dandelion Café, Mediterranean Blue, and Universal.
