Plastic Tax: An Alternative to Plastic Alternatives

Often considered the ultimate beach destination, the world-famous beaches that surround Florida have long defined the culture of the Sunshine State. Florida’s white, sandy beaches not only define its culture—it is the foundation of Florida’s economy. Unfortunately, this culture and economic foundation is being threatened, and the world-famous beaches that attract tourists by the droves are beginning to disappear. This threat of rising sea levels does not stop at the sandy beaches loved by tourists and locals alike; the regression of the shoreline that surrounds Florida will also lead to the loss of the opulent, tax-revenue generating real estate that lines the Sunshine State’s coastline. With this impending loss of a significant portion of the tourist economy and the loss of property taxes generated by the beach-front real estate on the horizon, the Florida government’s need to plan for contingencies cannot be overstated. While this threat of rising sea levels affects Florida on a localized scale, its cause is attributable worldwide and any action to stop rising sea levels would need to be made on a global scale. As a result, the idea of halting rising sea level on a localized scale is not realistic: the focal point at this juncture should be mitigation. Specifically, in Florida’s case, the goal should be to generate an adequate disaster fund to pay for beach nourishment projects, the potential loss of property-tax revenue, and the loss of tourist-generated revenue. The scope of this article will be divided into two sections: part one will cover a brief background of rising sea levels, the projections for future sea level rise, and Florida’s unique vulnerability to said sea level rise; part two will propose a hybrid of upstream and downstream taxes on single-use plastics that will not only potentially deter overuse of such plastics, but also generate an adequate disaster fund to alleviate the state’s burden of funding the future damages and revenue loss caused by the threat of rising sea levels.