First in a series
When City Hall dispatched a reminder to the community yesterday afternoon that Culver City’s much talked-about polystyrene ban takes effect one week from today, the intensely skeptical Steve Rose posed one imposing question:
“Of the more than 200 food businesses in Culver City, who is going to go around and enforce the ban?”
The retiring longtime CEO of the Chamber of Commerce returned to one of his strongest doubts:
“I understand the idea behind clean water and everything related to those kinds of concepts,” said Mr. Rose.
“However, I question how practical it is to ban polystyrene in a five-square-mile area.”
He said “it would be different” if a statewide ban on polystyrene were forthcoming. It is not. Not even close.
“How is the city going to stop the McDonalds that surround Culver City?” Mr. Rose asked.
“There is not a McDonald’s in Culver City, but three are a block away. They are going to be selling polystyrene.”
Six months ago, Culver City became the 108th California community to adopt a citywide ordinance that bans the use of polystyrene foodware.
Polystyrene is a synthetic polymer plastic that comes in two forms.
- Foam – often mistakenly referred to as “styrofoam” and
- Solid (straws, cutlery, coffee cup lids) – are commonly used by restaurants for take-out food orders.
The polystyrene ban prohibits the sale of foam foodware, including coolers that are not encased in another material.
All food establishments providing takeout food are prohibited from using solid and foam polystyrene food ware products.
They are required to ask their customers whether they want cutlery included with their takeout order.
Egg cartons, meat trays used for the sale of unprepared food, food prepared outside of the city, and foam packing materials used in shipping containers are exempt from the ban.
For more ban information, see www.culvercity.org/polystyreneban.
For an educational video about the polystyrene ban, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRL-AkkNCMk.
(To be continued)