There’s a movement among a small group of Tennessee lawmakers to implement statewide regulations on single-use plastics after the Legislature passed a bill outlawing communities from regulating such items at a local level.
The ban on bans is expected to be signed this week by Gov. Bill Lee, according to the Associated Press, and would leave any decision on restrictions on auxiliary devices to state lawmakers. It also would ban local governments from taxing, restricting or regulating food or drink content.
“I intend to bring a bill forward next year that would have statewide application with the help, I hope, of some other groups that like this,” Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, said.
Briggs is “very much a retro guy,” he said, adding that he doesn’t like Facebook, television or “a lot of things.” He would like life to “go back to the 1950s and 1960s,” when he went through grocery stores and cups, straws, sacks and other items were made of paper, he said.
He has twice pledged to bring forward a statewide bill to help reduce plastic waste next year. A representative in his office confirmed he plans to follow through with the promise but doesn’t yet have the details. He plans to get through this legislative session before researching the bill and figuring out the language and exactly what it will include, they said.