1. Single-Use Carryout Bag
Ordinance Update
and
Expanded Polystyrene Ban
Ursula Syrova, Sr. Office Assistant, Recycling Program
March 14, 2014
2. Why the bans?
Wildlife Impacts:
267 species affected
Fossil Fuel
Resources
Tree
Resources
Economics:
Litter & Maintenance
Costs
Source: Save the Bay
3. What is the Single-Use Carryout Bag
Ordinance?
No more plastic or “compostable” bags.
(Restaurants and charitable organizations
exempt).
40% post-consumer recycled paper bags.
10 cent charge for any permitted bag provided
at checkout (paper and “reusable”).
GOAL: Eliminate plastic AND paper single-use
bags. Use reusable bags instead.
2 Phases:
Phase 1: June 20th 2012
Phase 2: March 20th 2013
Citizen enforcement
4. Bag Outreach/Compliance Efforts
Multi-lingual handouts, posters
In-person auditing
Neighborhood Associations
City Events: Farmer’s Markets
Website/ Social Media
Bag It Forward collections
Snail Mail
Letters
Retailer & Resident Toolkits
5. Bag Ban So Far:
Both Phases Complete
Fewer bags being
distributed
Farmers Market:
unique challenges
No bag at all
Charge for “reusable”
bags as well with the
revision
It was a challenge to
enforce the reporting
requirement so it was
eliminated in the
ordinance revision
Finding suitable
retail store bags
Men carry stuff out by
hand, women bring
bags
to provide
6. Expanded Polystyrene Foodware Ban
Ban on the use of EPS
food or beverage
containers by retail food
establishments.
November 19, 2013,
Council voted 6-0 at the
second reading to adopt
an ordinance that will
include:
No EPS food
container use as part
of city business
(Council Policy)
A ban on all commercial
sales of EPS food
containers in 2015
Exempts pre-packaged
foods,
such as eggs and
meat sold in retail
stores.
The effective date will be
April 22, 2014 (Earth Day).
7. Foam Foodware Facts:
-By law we have to reduce the amount of foam
food containers and other trash pollutants in
local waterways.
- Many (more than 50) jurisdictions in California
have banned foam food take-out containers.
- Styrene, is "reasonably" anticipated to be a
carcinogen.
“At the
king tide,
it was
just ‘fall
down
and cry’
there
was so
much
foam in
the
channel.”
–ML
May I have
some more
carcinogens
in my soup?
Thanks!
Technically POSSIBLE and
actually WILL BE recycled
are very different things.
Filling, but not
digestible. . .
The “densifier” grinds
the foam up and then
squishes the nurdles
into bricks. Expensive,
messy, and rare.
8. EPS Ban Outreach:
• Foodware Vendor
Regional Open
House (August
2013)
• In-person visits
(ongoing)
• Postcard mailings
• Early Adopter Wall
of Fame
(Facebook)
10. “Holy moley! Paul's picture looks like EXACTLY the same mix of materials
that I found in the east channel on my Wednesday walk. We're just the
bottom of the drainage and it's coming to us. Very compelling reason for
product bans.” --Mary
11. If you see plastic bags or foam foodware, let us know !
And praise your favorite restaurants for not using it!
Be the change—bring your own utensils, travel mugs,
containers for leftovers, carryout bags, produce bags.
Contact:
Ursula Syrova
(408) 730-7279
USyrova@sunnyvale.ca.gov
For more information visit
Bringyourbags.inSunnyvale.com
and NoFoam.inSunnyvale.com
12. Like us, Follow us, on Facebook!
City-of-Sunnyvale-Environmental-Services-Department
Editor's Notes
The City of Sunnyvale, along with other Bay Area jurisdictions, has been tasked by regional water quality officials with reducing the amount of foam food containers and other trash pollutants in local waterways.
• The SMaRT Station spends 14 person hours a day, equivalent to 3,654 hours a year, unclogging plastic bags from recycling machinery, a problem that has compromised productivity of the recycling process. • Sunnyvale alone uses 75 million plastic bags a year, each resident on average using 497 single-use bags per year. • $25 million is spent annually by the State of California cleaning up plastic bag litter from storm drains, creeks, rivers and roadways. • Despite a 15 year effort, recycling of plastic bags has failed. Only 5% of plastic bags used get recycled. The rest get landfilled or end up as litter on roadways, rivers, creeks and in the ocean.
“Compostable” only works in commercial-scale composting.
Is the $0.10 cent charge taxable? No. Retailers are referred to the State Board of Equalization.
If a customer returns a product with the bag, is the bag refundable too? No.
Who keeps the $0.10 cent charge? The store.
Will outreach be provided to inform their customers? Yes.
What will I line my trash cans with at home? Make up of bathroom trash is mostly dry waste, wash bathroom cans periodically. Store a produce or newspaper bag for the “unmentionables.”
What will I use to pick up cat and dog excrement with? Produce bags, chip bags, bread bags, newspaper bags, etc.
What about food stamp and WIC customers? They are exempt from the ordinance with the exception of alcohol and cigarette products.
Will the bag charge stay at ten cents? No. Per the ordinance, the charge is scheduled to increase to $0.25 as of Jan 1, 2014.
Foam food containers can break into pieces and be mistaken for food and ingested by wildlife. - Foam food containers are made from non-renewable petrochemical resources and typically end up in landfills or as litter. -The City of Sunnyvale, along with other Bay Area jurisdictions, has been tasked by regional water quality officials with reducing the amount of foam food containers and other trash pollutants in local waterways. - 50 jurisdictions in California have banned foam food take-out containers. Los Altos , Cupertino, and Mountain View are planning on their bans going into effect in July 2014. - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has declared that the material foam containers are made from, styrene, is "reasonably" anticipated to be a carcinogen. - Less than one half of one percent (0.005) of foam food containers used for food service are actually recycled.
