|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The San Ramon City Council is set to discuss a proposed ordinance that would ban the use of polystyrene foam food and beverage containers at all vendors within city limits, expanding a decades-old ban on the use of environmentally harmful to-go packaging in the city.
Staff is asking the council to consider an amendment that would ban the use of all polystyrene foam packaging for food and drinks within the city as an update to a 1989 ordinance passed by the city banning the use and sale of food packaging processed using the environmentally harmful chemical chlorofluorocarbon (CFC).
The proposed amendment would update the existing ordinance to include all polystyrene foam, regardless of whether or not it is processed with CFC “as the material is harmful to wildlife whether made with or without CFCs, and there are substitute foodware options widely available on the market that are recyclable or compostable,” according to city staff.
“Polystyrene foam is not compostable, nor meaningfully recyclable,” wrote Kerry Parker, program director for public works. “Broken pieces of polystyrene foam look identical to the eggs and food eaten by animals and fish but are poisonous to wildlife. As this material is continuously pulverized by wind, water, and weather down to very small particles, these microplastics are a serious harm to the environment.”
Parker added that the material is not accepted for recycling under the city’s curbside collection program or other recycling systems, and that it can only be properly disposed of in the trash. She noted that the recycling process for polystyrene is “prohibitively expensive,” costing approximately $3,000 per ton to recycle compared with approximately $100 to recycle a ton of paper. Approximately 1% to 5% of polystyrene products produced go on to be recycled.
Under recent state legislation – Senate Bill 54, or the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act – that was signed into law in 2022, the use of single-use packaging and food containers must be reduced by 25% by 2032 and recycled at a minimum rate of 65%, with 100% of single-use food and beverage packaging required to be “truly recyclable” or compostable.Â
The law also has implications for polystyrene specifically, with the material set to be banned statewide in 2026 due to it not being recyclable within municipal waste collection systems.
While the material is set to be phased out in the coming years, the proposed ordinance would see a jumpstart on that process in San Ramon, with the ban proposed to go into effect starting May 9 if approved by the council. Any remaining products would be required to be consumed by Dec. 31, with enforcement of the amendment proposed to start at that point.
The delayed enforcement is aimed at mitigating hardships on business owners and operators, enabling them to use up any of the material left in stock prior to the implementation of enforcement.
Parker noted that bans on the material are widespread throughout the state and county, with bans in place in 135 jurisdictions statewide and in 10 out of 19 jurisdictions in Contra Costa County.
The San Ramon City Council is set to meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday (March 26). The agenda is available here.
In other business
*Councilmembers are set to review a study on cost allocation and user fees prepared by consultants in a special meeting ahead of their regular meeting at 3:30 p.m. The agenda is available here.
*The council is set to consider scheduling a public hearing and vote on an ordinance that would update the city’s fee schedule to align with costs for services according to the study up for review at their earlier special meeting.
*Administrative Services Director Kelly Sessions is set to provide a presentation on the city’s five-year economic outlook.
*Dinesh Govindarao, vice chair of the Library Advisory Committee, is set to provide the body’s annual report.
*The council is set to recognize the most recent graduating class of the city’s Government 101 program, with the cohort consisting of Sandra Almazan, Rohit Anumula, Robert Bickel, Casey Briggs, Eileen Cavestany, Ken Duley, Susan Duley, Maynard Estrellado, Todd Flavio, Sara Gao, Janet Kleyn, Srinivasa Manapragada, Rob Maser, Partha Mitra, Zephyr Roos, Ramya Shenoy, Ramon Widmer, Doug Wilson, David Woodard, and Wenjing Wu.
*The council is set to issue a proclamation recognizing March as American Red Cross Month.
