Guest Editorial: Local plastic bag ban goes too far.

Plastic bags are everywhere in our lives. We grab one in the morning to pack our lunch. We slip our hands in them to pick up dog doo. We use them to line garbage cans, separate dirty laundry in the luggage and carry things from here to there.

If you doubt the convenience of grocery store plastic bags, try going a month without using one.

But plastic bags also are dangerous for the environment. They take considerable energy to manufacture and a thousand years to disintegrate. And they’re so light, breezes easily lift them up and litter them along highways, waterways and in trees. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says plastic bags “can harm land and marine life, interfere with landfill operations, clog flood control systems and breed mosquitoes.”

Because of the damage they cause, Coral Gables expects with a vote scheduled today to become the first Florida city to ban plastic bags. Exceptions would be made for bags from dry cleaners, newspapers, pharmacies and veterinarians, plus bigger bags that hold garbage or yard waste, and those designed for dog waste.

You can understand the frustration of Coral Gables city commissioners, who like those in many other Florida communities, have faced nothing but obstacles from Tallahassee in addressing plastic bag pollution. But while the city’s goal is good, we believe the proposed ban goes too far, too fast.

Experience elsewhere suggests bans create backlash. If you want to change behavior, a better middle ground is to charge a tax — say, 5 or 10 cents each — on plastic bags dispensed by stores or vendors.

Chicago, for example, repealed its plastic bag ban because of consumer pushback, opting instead for a checkout tax. A 5-cent tax in Washington D.C. has cut in half the use of plastic bags. And in Ireland, a 20-cent tax on plastic bags led to a 95 percent drop in use.

While the world is crimping the use of plastic bags, the same cannot be said for Tallahassee, where lawmakers continue to turn a blind eye. While California enacted a statewide ban in 2015 — a step too far, in our opinion — Florida took the opposite tack in 2008 by banning communities from banning the distribution of plastic bags . ...

You can only shake your head at how state lawmakers beat their chests for state’s rights, yet believe they know better than local leaders what’s best for their communities.

The state’s argument is that a patchwork of local regulations is bad for businesses with multiple outlets. You can understand that. ...But what happens when state lawmakers refuse to listen to local communities? ...

The state’s standoff with Coral Gables started last year, after [it] banned the use of Styrofoam, or polystyrene. A month later, the Legislature banned Styrofoam bans and made the law retroactive to January. When the city refused to back down, the Florida Retail Federation sued. A circuit court this month sided with the city — not only on its right to ban Styrofoam, but also plastic bags. While an appeal is likely, the city quickly moved to pass a plastic bag ban.

Meanwhile, a Senate committee this month passed a bill that would let coastal communities — of less than 100,000 population — temporarily ban plastic bags during a two-year pilot program. The legislation wouldn’t allow a tax, though. And the communities would have to collect a lot of data.

Florida lawmakers should learn from others and let cities attempt to change consumer behavior. If not a ban, at least let cities pass a tax on plastic bags . ...