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City News

Council Enacts Polystyrene Ban

John VanLandingham
The Emeryville Connection Staff
May 2007

The City Council, ignoring last minute restaurant industry pleas for a delay, approved a new ordinance banning the use of disposable polystyrene foam containers by all food vendors in Emeryville or doing business with the city.

The vote was 4-0 with Vice Mayor Ruth Atkin absent.

Food vendors, including grocers, have until Jan. 1, 2008 to use up their existing supplies of the containers and replace them with biodegradable or compostable products. Violators risk fines ranging from $100 for the first offense up to $400 for the third and each subsequent violation.

Often called Styrofoam, a trademarked name for a Dow Chemical Co. polystyrene product, the clamshell containers, cups and lids are convenient for vendors and customers alike. They are cheap and effective. But they also outlive their intended uses, can’t be reused or recycled and often create costly disposal problems that are passed on to residents, Deputy City Attorney Mike Guina said in a staff report.

Even when disposed of properly the lightweight and floatable containers blow away. “It is estimated that polystyrene foam comprises 15 percent of the litter collected in storm drains,” Guina’s report stated.

Packaged food prepared outside of Emeryville is exempt, although the city is asking those vendors to voluntarily comply with the ordinance. Foam ice chests and coolers intended for reuse also are exempt.

Responding to a question from Council member Ken Bukowski, Guina said that the ban applied both to leftover food eaten on the premises or food taken home to be eaten.

Local vendors can apply to City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe for a one-year exemption, which will be granted if they can prove that no affordable alternate supplies exist. At the end of that year, they may reapply.

A representative of the California Restaurant Association asked the council to include an “affordability” clause in the ordinance, which would have delayed its enactment until alternate supplies were more affordable for small businesses.

She said that many “mom and pop” markets already operating on a thin profit margin risked going out of business because they could not afford to purchase the alternate supplies and pass that cost on to their customers.

She also said, without citing the source of her statistic, that the ban could drive up the small vendors’ costs by 30 percent.

“The vendor can make a case of cost for an exemption,” Guina said, reminding the council of the exemption clause.

Council member John Fricke opposed the “affordability” request. “It’s similar to buying electronic equipment where you pay a disposal fee at the time you purchase it. If the extra cost is astronomical, there is a remedy.”

Mayor Nora Davis concurred. “When you put weasel words like affordability in there, you cut what you are trying to do. It doesn’t take effect until 2008. There is time to make adjustments.”

John VanLandingham is a writer for The Emeryville Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com.