Following an international wave of environmental protection legislation, new laws in the Brazilian city and state of Rio de Janeiro are leading to the elimination of plastic bags (state-wide) and straws (city-wide).
The bill to ban plastic straws was introduced by Councilman Jairinho of the MDB party. It states that all commercial establishments including bars, restaurants and kiosks shall replace their plastic straws with biodegradable paper straws. Other forms of recyclable straws will also be permitted.
Those who fail to conform to the new law will face fines of R$3.000 for a first offense and R$6.000 for repeat offenses.
In a similar act aimed at protecting the environment, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando Pezão, approved Law 8.006 banning plastic bags on June 26. The law permits small businesses to make the transition to reusable bags within 18 months while large businesses have 12 months.
More than half of the material used to make bags must now be "renewable". This includes materials such as sugarcane, corn or other materials used to make bioplastics. The bags will also come in the colors green for recyclable material and grey for other materials to help the population learn to separate and collect recyclables.
Recent news over giant floating islands of garbage in the Pacific, named the Great North Pacific Garbage Patch, and the number of marine animal deaths due to swallowing or being strangled by plastic bags or other plastic debris, have raised serious concerns among world leaders.
During the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the waters of Rio's famed beaches received international scorn for their high levels of pollution. Though industrial run-off and untreated sewage was the main concern for the athletes, floating trash, including plastic, was often featured in news stories, showing a less than picturesque version of Brazil's fabled beaches.
Rio now hopes to create a new image for itself: one of conservation and environmental protection.