Senate Bill 958<\/a>, sponsored by Republican Senator Jennifer Bradley. The bill aims to set statewide guidelines for how cities and counties regulate drinking straws and stirrers, potentially undoing years of local bans on single-use plastic.<\/p>\nOpinions among Floridians are divided.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate paper straws, but I get why they\u2019re good for the environment,\u201d Zach Harris said. \u201cPlastic is pretty gross, but paper straws can be annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others say they\u2019re fully on board with paper alternatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a fan,\u201d Hannah Bryan said, who recently moved to Florida. \u201cI\u2019ve been to so many places where this is already a thing. They\u2019re much better for the environment, and they\u2019re biodegradable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters of SB 958 say the goal is uniformity, so businesses aren\u2019t forced to follow different straw rules from city to city.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal:<\/p>\n
Local governments could still regulate straws and stirrers, but only if the materials are:<\/p>\n
Lawmakers backing the bill argue it still limits single-use plastics while addressing concerns tied to paper straws.<\/p>\n
The proposal points to a 2024 study that found PFAS \u2014 often called \u201cforever chemicals\u201d \u2014 present in many paper drinking straws. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to potential health risks, raising questions about whether paper straws are truly the safer option.<\/p>\n
Several Florida cities, including Orlando, West Palm Beach, Miami Beach, and Fort Lauderdale, currently ban single-use plastic straws in certain settings. Those local rules have pushed businesses toward paper or plant-based alternatives.<\/p>\n
If passed, the bill would apply statewide and could override those existing local bans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything involving straws is going to get pushback,\u201d Jessica Hensen said. \u201cPeople have strong opinions \u2014 some like straws, some don\u2019t \u2014 so there\u2019s always going to be resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s legislative session begins January 13. If SB 958 passes, it could reshape what you\u2019re handed with your next drink \u2014 and keep the straw debate swirling well into the future<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLORIDA \u2013 If you\u2019ve ever taken a sip only to end up chewing on a soggy paper straw,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,48467],"class_list":["post-89681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-paper-straws"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}