Jun 29 - Polystyrene Bans Gain Speed in CA Communities

About 100 communities have polystyrene packaging bans and it seems that number will soon be getting larger, especially in California.

The Oakland City Council officially adopted their polystyrene packaging ban for food vendors this week after an initial vote last week by the council.

Also this week, the director of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors introduced the Food Service Waste Reduction Act, requiring city departments and restaurants to stop using polystyrene packaging beginning January 2007. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Charlie Goodyear reported that the ban "would apply to about 3,400 restaurants, while also requiring the city to provide a list of biodegradable and compostable alternative materials for food vendors to use." Read the complete article.

The city of Calabasas (LA County) has also expressed interest in a Styrofoam ban and city staff plan to draft an ordinance and survey businesses regarding such a bad before having a formal discussion with all city council members. The complete article, by The Acorn's Michael Picarella reports that Calabasas' ban follows in the foot steps of neighbor city Malibu, which enacted a ban last year.

Polystyrene is unrecyclable and like other plastics can do much damage to the marine environment when carelessly handled or accidentally lost. CAW continues to sponsor legislation aimed at minimizing this effect and reducing the use of polystyrene in the environment. This year CAW is sponsoring both AB 1940 (Koretz), which would create a multi-agency taskforce to address the problem of marine debris and is currently in the Senate Committee on Appropriations and AB 1866 (Karnette), which would have banned the use of polystyrene food packaging at state facilities, but stalled in the Assembly Appropiations Committee.

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Lanh Nguyen