There’s likely another commonly used petroleum-based product that could join single-use plastic bags in the banned category if City Council members Barbara Bry and Chris Ward get their way.
Polystyrene [styrofoam] food and beverage containers may become the second ocean-polluting, plastic-based item to be prohibited for public use as Bry of District 1 representing La Jolla, and Chris Ward representing mid-City in District 3, are co-sponsoring new legislation.
“What we have now is a draft ordinance,” said Bry, noting the draft contains exceptions for “small businesses for customers requesting plastic utensils.”
The impetus for taking action against styrofoam, said Bry, “comes from the realization that this is a major problem.” She added environmental groups, including Surfrider, San Diego Coastkeeper and the Sierra Club, support banning styrofoam.
Concurrently, there is a similar measure at the state level proposed by Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica) for the second consecutive year, now stalled, that would prohibit California restaurants from distributing take-out orders in disposable polystyrene food service containers starting in 2020.
Reacting to the news that styrofoam may soon be verboten, two OB restaurants – Raglan Public House at 1851 Bacon St. and Tiki Port Outdoor Cafe at 2201 Cable St. – said they were supportive of eradicating it.
“At Raglan we have never used styrofoam materials for any of our packaging,” said GM Kyle Jaworski. “It’s never really been a hardship on us. We use sustainable materials whenever possible.”
Jaworski added: “Raglan still uses some plastics as the design of items such as sustainable carryout silverware and straws are still not durable enough to stand up to most uses. We have never found a need to use styrofoam containers and don’t foresee the potential ban being an issue for us in any of our operations going forward.”
Noted Robert Allen of Tiki Port: “It’s unfortunate folks still use styrofoam in the restaurant industry. There are many eco-friendly substitutes, at a minimal cost, and the packaging looks better in most cases, from a marketing concept.”
Allen stopped using styrofoam a decade ago “immediately switching our use out of styrofoam to clear cornstarch cold containers, lids and reusable eco-paper cups for hot products.”
Added Allen, “We are just moving into paper straws as well.”
What advice did Allen offer to other Peninsula eateries on the styrofoam ban?
“Those businesses that are making bank and that can afford to do the switch out of styrofoam, do it now. And those that are not doing it due to complacency, or laziness, or because everyone else isn’t doing it yet, is a very poor excuse.”
Pointing out some OB businesses are “still using styrofoam and making huge profits,” Allen said, “Go after them first … The time has come.”
Michael Torti, executive committee chair for Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter, was all in on the styrofoam ban.
“Surfrider supports the City’s proposed expanded polystyrene reduction ordinance,” Torti said. “Expanded polystyrene foodware containers and other single-use plastics are damaging the environment, marine life and humans. The product cannot be recycled effectively, does not biodegrade and costs tax payers millions in litter cleanup and landfill annually.”
Torti said Surfrider volunteers collected 12,575 pieces of EPS from San Diego County beaches in 2017 alone. “Unfortunately the majority of this single-use plastic is uncollectible, as it often breaks into small fragments, and its lightweight design allows the plastic to spread into the ocean environment,” he said. “Researchers estimate that by 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean.”
Polystyrene was discovered in 1839 by a Berlin pharmacist who distilled the material from combinations involving Sweetgum tree resin. Polystyrene first began being manufactured in 1931. In 1941, Dow Chemical invented the styrofoam process producing the product’s trademark foam shape. In 1960, Dart Container, the largest manufacturer of foam cups, produced their first styrofoam shipment.
Dr. Jenni Brandon, the Price Postdoctoral Fellow at Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, said styrofoam is a threat because “it’s almost impossible to recycle. Because of the way it’s made, it breaks down into increasingly tinier pieces, and styrofoam floats because it’s super light. That’s why you find it very far from land out in the ocean.”
Brandon said styrofoam has other harmful qualities, noting it virtually cannot be biodegraded.
“Ninety-nine percent of the styrofoam ever made is still out there somewhere,” she said, adding it affects larger marine animals, working its way down and into the food chain as it gradually breaks up into ever-smaller pieces consumed by increasingly smaller creatures, ultimately winding up in human diets.
Brandon added styrofoam, being porous, “acts like a sponge soaking up pollutants, so animals that eat it not only get the plastic, but other harmful chemicals as well.”
Bry said there are numerous other affordable alternatives to styrofoam that can take its place in packaging.
“These include recyclable paper and biodegradable plastic containers,” she said.
Concluded Bry about chemicals found in styrofoam, “It’s a known carcinogen and pollutant.” She pointed out that “116 jurisdictions in California have already prohibited them (styrofoam containers),” including Solana and Imperial beaches in San Diego.
