{"id":316915,"date":"2022-11-16T10:52:58","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T18:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=316915"},"modified":"2022-11-16T10:52:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T18:52:58","slug":"city-council-bans-styrofoam-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/city-council-bans-styrofoam-again\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council bans styrofoam again"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego City Council voted 7-1 Nov. 15 to ban polystyrene foam food containers, utensils, coolers and toys, while granting hardship exclusions for small businesses potentially negatively impacted by the new ordinance.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

District 6 Council member Chris Cate cast the lone dissenting vote. Council member Vivian Moreno of District 8 was absent.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Commonly known as styrofoam, the new prohibition on polystyrene foam product use will now take effect April 1, 2023. To assist small businesses and restaurants in making a successful transition to non-styrofoam containers and products, there will be a 12-month exemption to comply with the new ordinance for businesses with less than $500,000 in annual income.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

City staff told the council polystyrene constitutes \u201ca threat to the environment in San Diego as litter in our canyons, streets, waterways, and beaches.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Polystyrene foam blows in the wind and floats on water, where it can be ingested by birds, fish, and other organisms. The polystyrene foam that does not become litter, but is put in trash or recycling bins, then becomes a nuisance at the landfill or recycling center, as it easily breaks up, blows around, and becomes litter at and around the landfill or becomes contamination in other recycling streams.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The council passed an ordinance banning polystyrene in 2019 to reduce the City’s plastic usage, but enforcement was quickly tied up by a lawsuit. That suit was settled with the City agreeing to prepare an environmental impact report on the effects of such a ban under the California Environmental Quality Act.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

During public testimony before the council\u2019s styrofoam-ban vote, Mitch Silverstein of Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to environmental protection said, \u201cWe represent our ocean, our beaches, and the millions of people who love them. Surfrider strongly supports the ordinance and worked with previous council member Chris Ward in a broad coalition to get it introduced back in 2018. Sixteen years of our local beach cleanup data does not lie: foam is the second most commonly found form of pollution along San Diego\u2019s coastline.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Added Silverstein, \u201cIn 2019 when we (Surfrider) did over 100 local beach cleanups, foam accounted for 14.4% of the total items found. And that\u2019s a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of pieces volunteers were unable to collect. Single-use foam breaks up instantly and is completely unmanageable as a waste product. One-hundred-twenty-nine California cities have already taken this action, including San Diego, before the plastic industry lawsuit thwarted it. For the sake of the next generation, we must source-reduce single-use plastic starting with the worst offenders. Please vote yes.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

District 1 Council member Joe LaCava, chair of the City\u2019s Environment Committee, moved to ban polystyrene products. \u201cSan Diego is ready to say goodbye to styrofoam,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were ready in 2018. And many businesses have already made the switch. Over 130 cities have already adopted a ban, and both the County and City of Los Angeles are on the verge. Let\u2019s beat L.A.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s long past time we had a (styrofoam) ban,\u201d agreed District 5 Council member Marni von Wilpert. \u201cThis is all of our future, making sure harmful plastics and other products are kept from our waste stream. This is the kind of climate action that the City should be proud of.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Collage top image: SURFRIDER FOUNDATION\/Courtesy photo<\/em><\/p>\n

Styrofoam photos courtesy of Cathy Ives<\/em><\/p>\n

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San Diego City Council voted 7-1 Nov. 15 to ban polystyrene foam food containers, utensils, coolers and toys, while granting hardship exclusions for small businesses potentially negatively impacted by the new ordinance. District 6 Council member Chris Cate cast the lone dissenting vote. Council member Vivian Moreno of District 8 was absent. Commonly known as […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":316927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11550","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"San Diego City Council voted 7-1 Nov. 15 to ban polystyrene foam food containers, utensils, coolers and toys, while granting hardship exclusions for small businesses potentially negatively impacted by the new ordinance.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11561,11550],"tags":[12391,12604,14574],"class_list":["post-316915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-peninsula-beacon","category-top-stories","tag-environment","tag-san-diego-city-council","tag-styrofoam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}