City Council Watch – January 31, 2023

[Item 8a] GEC strongly supports the adoption of the Plastic Reduction Ordinance

We ask you to email, call, go to council, to support these new rules, the timeline as proposed, and the education and outreach that will help them be effective. However, we ask you to request that council address one issue.

Both of the options presented for proposed fines are too weak and ineffective.

They reduce penalties currently adopted for Glendale Ord. No. 5964 (Section 8.42.050), the “Polystyrene and Single-Use Plastic Products” Ordinance for City Facilities and Events adopted on April 6, 2021, which this ordinance will replace.  They are much weaker and less effective than similar ordinances adopted by over 150 California cities. Please ask City Council to keep fines the same as what is currently in place for the Polystyrene and Single-Use Plastics City Facilities and Events Ordinance. The fee resolution with the $300 annual cap will handicap this ordinance. Businesses can choose to ignore the ordinance and simply pay the fine as a cost of doing business.

We believe that most businesses want to be good neighbors and comply with city regulations, but for the very few that will not comply, strong penalties for violations of the ordinance helps ensure equitable treatment and a “level playing field” for all.

Please make time Tuesday night for a phone call or to come to council in support of this item. It’s a game changer for the better. A suite of new rules that will help our City reduce plastic that is too often littered and makes its way to the Pacific Ocean, that fills our landfills, that contaminates our recyclables and that costs us financially too, whether we know it or not, through our taxes (litter cleanup, hauling fees, and potential hefty water pollution impact fees that can be levied on municipalities). It burdens us with the heaviest costs, like the degradation of our waterways and our own bodies. We are breathing plastic, we are drinking it, we are literally eating it. It’s time to do something to make a change and this will.

PROPOSED PLASTIC WASTE REDUCTION REGULATIONS:

1. Prohibition of use, distribution, and sale of expanded polystyrene (EPS) or “foam” foodware, polystyrene coolers, polystyrene packing materials, polystyrene egg cartons, and polystyrene produce, meat and fish trays.

2. Prohibition of the use of single-use plastic straws, stirrers and utensils for use on- site, or for to-go or delivery meals. (These items must instead be made of non-plastic materials such as paper, wood, pasta, sugar, bamboo. To-go items must be upon request only per “Skip the Stuff” ordinance, previously approved.)

3. Establishment of compostable/recyclable foodware standards (item must be accepted by City’s recycling or compost collection programs and must be free of intentionally added fluorinated chemicals (PFAS) Note: State law prohibits added PFAS as of Jan. 2023.

4. Implementation of 25 cent single-use disposable cup charge (proceeds retained by restaurants)

5. Use of reusable foodware for dining on premises (when not feasible can get a waiver, must then comply with compostable foodware standards. Compostable paper, food wrappers/sleeves/bags and recyclable foil are allowed.)

6. Restrictions on the use of single use plastic beverage bottles for City of Glendale facilities and events. (16.4 million people pass through the San Francisco airport annually, where all beverages are sold in reusable or recyclable aluminum, or glass containers. )