City seeks to take out plastics
CITY HALL — Ordering take-out from a favorite local restaurant may never be the same, as elected officials here look to ban all unrecyclable Styrofoam and plastic products used to store food.
Despite pleas from representatives with the restaurant and plastics industries, the City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday in favor of drafting a ban on expanded polystyrene (EPS) food packaging within the city limits. The ban, which targets Styrofoam cups, plates and clamshell take-out containers, would apply to all public, private and nonprofit entities that use such products.
There are approximately 300 individual restaurants and food service businesses currently holding business licenses in the city, 122 of which use no EPS food packaging, according to a city staff report.
The council also instructed city staff to consider a similar ban on plastic grocery bags and other non-recyclable plastic food packaging in an effort to force businesses to use more environmentally friendly alternatives, such as cups and plates made from corn starch, sugar cane, or a combination of bamboo, tapioca and water.
The move, more than four years in the making, comes as the nation prepares to celebrate Clean Beaches Week (see related story), which will begin June 29 with an event scheduled in Santa Monica expected to include federal officials. Council members said the EPS ban would help eliminate litter on local beaches and protect marine animals from ingesting the toxic material, which causes them to become malnourished and oftentimes kills them.
“Our beaches are a resource we can’t afford to ignore,” said Councilman Kevin McKeown, the council’s representative on the city’s Task Force on the Environment, which recommended in 2001 to ban Styrofoam use in the city. “We need to get (Styrofoam) out of the system.”
While council members acknowledge banning Styrofoam will not eliminate litter from the beaches, they contend it is an important first step in protecting the Santa Monica Bay and the city’s beaches, which are inundated with waste flowing in from storm drains or scattered by birds picking through trash cans without lids to keep garbage from being tossed around.
To eliminate litter, City Hall will have to engage in a coordinated, regional effort with the county and other municipalities who use storm drains that empty into the bay. That effort will require considerable time,effort and money to educate the public about the dangers of littering and what can be done to prevent it.
“I think we’re kidding ourselves to think that what we do in Santa Monica will cause other cities to come along,” said Councilman Bobby Shriver,who suggested Santa Monicans pass a proposition like Los Angeles’s Prop. 0, which dedicates millions to the eventual elimination of litter in storm drains.
“This is one small step in a number of steps we have to take, not only by us, but by other cities as well,” Shriver said.
“If we do this, I think the other 87 municipalities in Los Angeles County will follow,” McKeown said. “We have to act.”
Environmentalists claim the use of EPS food packaging causes beaches to be polluted as the material is so light, it floats in water and is easily carried down storm drains to the ocean. The material is also carried by the wind, even if disposed of properly.
Marine biologists have found that once the non-biodegradable material makes its way into the marine environment, it can mimic some natural food sources and, therefore, is more likely to be ingested by living creatures. Recent studies have found plastics to be in the digestive system of nearly all tested ocean-feeding birds. Ingestion of EPS by birds or other marine animals often results in reduced appetite, reduced nutrient absorption and possible death by starvation, studies show.
“There’s been numerous research on the Leeward Islands of Hawaii — one of the most remote places on the planet — where dead albatrosses have basically starved to death because their entire stomachs are filled with plastics, and that’s non-recyclable plastic predominantly, not just polystyrene,” said Mark Gold, director of Heal The Bay, which supports a more far-reaching ban on all plastics, including grocery bags. “You notice that the arguments you heard from the plastics industry didn’t really hold much water — pun intended — when it came to marine debris. They can say all they want about landfill arguments, but when it comes to marine debris, you don’t see that same levels (of pollution) with paper products because they don’t float... they don’t break down into little pieces where the marine animals think they are eating plankton and eggs.”
In 2002, the polystyrene industry reported that of the 869 million pounds of EPS produced in the U.S., 26.2 million pounds of post consumer EPS packaging, or 3 percent of the total, was recycled. Last year, volunteers with Heal The Bay’s Adopt-A-Beach program found that EPS and non-recyclable plastic comprised more than 64 percent of all trash collected on Santa Monica beaches.
Representatives with the Polystyrene Packaging Council said banning Styrofoam and other plastic products will not eliminate litter found in the city, and may actually increase the amount of waste not making it into a trash can as people will be more inclined to litter, thinking it is not as harmful for the environment because the products discarded are deemed recyclable.
Instead of focusing on EPS, Tom Knox, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, said elected officials should work with the plastics industry on educating the public about the damaging effects of litter and the benefits of recycling.
“We’ve gotten away from personal responsibility for trash,” Knox said. “No ban is ever going to really equate to less trash on the street.”
Knox also said some of the alternative products, particularly paper products, can pose just as much of a danger to the environment as Styrofoam because the products are coated with a petroleum-based, polyethylene coating that gives them rigidity and insulation, but also prevents them from being effectively recycled.
The alternative products also do not keep food as hot or as cold as EPS packaging, and therefore, are unreliable and may drive customers elsewhere, said Andrew Casaña, senior director of local government affairs for the California Restaurant Assn.
“This is really a safety issue,” Casaña said. “You are talking about food items that are extremely hot and there’s the potential with these other products for failure, leading to people being badly burned, and companies just don’t want to get sued.”
Casaña said there is also concern about cost. Manufacturing a paper cup is three times more expensive than a cup made from Styrofoam, Casaña said. If a restaurant is forced to purchase paper,that could cut into profit and force some restaurants to cut back on staff.
Melinda Amaya, who manages the Italian cafe Fritto Misto, said she is against the ban because no other product can perform as well as Styrofoam for certain food items, such as hot soups and sauces served with pasta. She said the products don’t insulate as well as EPS.
“If a customer takes their food home and it’s cold, they’re not going to be happy, and we’re very concerned with how that will effect our business,” Amaya said. “We only use Styrofoam when we have to, and to ban it is just drastic.”
Janabai Amsden, owner of Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, a raw food cafe in the “Green Light District” of Main Street, said she uses only biodegradable products to serve food to her customers and the benefits of doing so far outweigh any costs associated with more expensive, environmentally sound products.
“We have a zero waste packaging policy and it has been incredibly successful for us,” she said.“We passed on the idea to customers and they really seem to appreciate that.”
Amsden said Santa Monica is known for being one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the world, and therefore, should approve the ban and publicize it to show tourists the council is serious when it comes to conservation and recycling.
Santa Monica is not the only city that has considered banning Styrofoam and other non-recyclable plastics. Cities like Portland, Ore., Berkeley and Malibu have also instituted some form of a ban. In Malibu, the restriction on Styrofoam use by establishments that sell food was passed in September 2005, and took effect 30 days later, said Jennifer Voccola, an environmental programs analyst for Malibu, who is overseeing the implementation of the ban.
“Everyone has been pretty receptive” to the ban, Voccola said. “If businesses are still using polystyrene, they are waiting until they make their next order.”
Under the ban being drafted by staff at City Hall, restaurant owners and others effected would be given a year to comply and would be allowed to use up the remainder of their EPS inventory without the prospect of being punished.
Exactly what that punishment will be has not been decided. City staff is to come back to the council with a plan on how to enforce the ban.
In Malibu, there is a fine structure for violating the band, but so far, no fines have been handed down because restaurants and other businesses that sell food are allowed 12 months to comply. That time has not yet passed, according to Voccola.
Enforcement will be included with storm water inspections that occur annually, Voccola said.
Malibu has not examined what impact the ban has had on marine life.
“We are working on litter as a whole,” Voccola said.
The ban is expected to come back to the council within the coming weeks. City staff believes implementation of the ban will not create a significant impact for local businesses or City Hall. Staff estimates the total annual budgetary impact related to the implementation of the ban will be roughly $31,000 for supplies and materials.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 15, 2006. Read the original PDF.