Bringing Its Forces to Bear on Takeout Trash

As a surfer, Dean Kubani is used to seeing bits of plastic cups and takeout containers as they bob by his board on the waves of Santa Monica Bay.

“I’m always picking up trash and tucking it in the sleeve of my wetsuit,” he said. “It’s a constant problem.”

Unlike most other surfers, Kubani, Santa Monica’s manager of environmental programs, is in a position to do something about the water-borne detritus. Based on his recommendation, the city is crafting an ordinance that would ban the use of non-recyclable packaging for takeout food and beverages.

If the ordinance passes by summer’s end, as expected, Santa Monica would become the first California community to bar the use of clear plastic containers made of petroleum-based polystyrene. And it would join several other cities that have limited or banned the use of “expanded” polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam.

Data from Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental group dedicated to making Santa Monica Bay and other Southern California coastal waters safe, indicate that expanded polystyrene and non-recyclable plastic made up more than 64% of the 70,000-plus pieces of trash collected on Santa Monica beaches in 2005’s Adopt-a-Beach program.

“Polystyrene is a substance that for all intents and purposes never biodegrades,” said Santa Monica Councilman Richard Bloom. “It does break down, into little pellets that are extremely hard to clean and are ingested by marine life.”

Santa Monica’s proposed ban is expected to face a fight from the restaurant industry.

The California Restaurant Assn., a trade group, said a ban would not address the chief problem: littering. Better, the group has said, to educate the public about the importance of properly disposing of trash.

Of 394 Santa Monica restaurants the group surveyed, 178 said they use packaging made of expanded polystyrene. And 75% of those were small-business owners for whom any extra expense for recyclable packaging could be significant.

The association noted that polystyrene packaging has long been an inexpensive, readily available resource.

“So far there hasn’t been any type of product created en masse that is even close to this cost-effective,” said Jordan Traverso, a group spokeswoman.

Andrew Casana, the association’s director of local government affairs in the Los Angeles area, suggested that before enacting a ban, Santa Monica should first look to steps such as attaching lids to beachside trash cans to cut down on wind-blown trash.

The cities of Berkeley and Malibu as well as Ventura County have previously prohibited the use of expanded polystyrene, and several Orange County cities have limited its use within their public facilities and at city-sponsored events.

In Malibu, most restaurants and other businesses surveyed recently said they have complied, said Jennifer Voccola, the city’s environmental programs analyst. Some businesses that have not yet switched to recyclable packaging have vowed to do so after they exhaust their existing supplies of non-recyclable containers.

Many Santa Monica eateries have already made the change.

Janabai, a co-owner of Euphoria Loves Rawvolution, a raw food and vegan restaurant on Main Street, said her establishment uses only biodegradable packaging, including plates made from sugar cane and corn-based containers.

“We do a thriving business because we use alternatives,” she said. “People come to us for that reason.”

Compostable products represent a small fraction of America’s $8-billion-to-$12-billion-a-year container and packaging industry, according to the Foodservice & Packaging Institute in Falls Church, Va. However, demand is growing as companies switch to more environmentally friendly practices.

Wal-Mart, for example, has decided to switch from petroleum-based plastics to corn-based packaging for fresh strawberries, cut fruit and herbs.

“Restaurants view it as such an advantage to be able to throw away the container with the leftover food,” said Annika Randrup, director of marketing and development for Duni Corp., an Atlanta-based company that makes takeout packaging, napkins and table covers.

The high price of petroleum is helping to drive the trend, said Frederic Scheer, chief executive of Cereplast Inc., a Hawthorne company that designs and manufactures starch-based, renewable plastics that can be composted.

“With a barrel of crude at $75, everyone all of a sudden is becoming greener,” he said. Bans such as the one anticipated in Santa Monica are speeding a dramatic conversion in the plastics industry, he added.

Santa Monica officials said they want to be fair to businesses.

To give restaurants and other businesses time to adjust, the city would make the ban effective one year from the final adoption of the ordinance. The ordinance would also allow businesses to seek a waiver if they could demonstrate that switching to recyclable packaging would prove a financial hardship. Grocery stores would most likely not be affected.

Keeping a close eye on the Santa Monica situation will be Los Angeles Councilman Jack Weiss.

He recently asked Bloom to provide him with background information on the proposal.

“I would be very interested in presenting that to the Los Angeles council,” Weiss said. “This is a classic sort of issue where if everyone in the region can follow suit, you can make a big difference.” Weiss acknowledged that such a ban would probably be a much tougher sell in sprawling Los Angeles.