When Det. Göran Eriksson was dispatched last summer by his fellow City Council members to research the dangers, tragedies and solutions for Styrofoam pieces cluttering Ballona Creek and the Pacific Ocean, he embraced his charge with the seriousness of a man changing careers in mid-life.
In the unenlightened days of early August, non-environmentalists identified Styrofoam as The Culprit.
At 6-foot-5 the tallest Councilman in at least decades, Mr. Eriksson, just months after being elected, swiftly corrected definitions of terms.
Polystyrene is the true culprit, the father of a large family of plastic children, the best known of which is Styrofoam.
Before last evening’s pivotal meeting, Mr. Eriksson was asked what could happen to make the occasion a success.
“I believe we already have been successful,” he said, by shedding new definitional light on the specific terms and little known perils to the environment.
His (some said) heroic approach probing, poking around and hours of sometimes arcane-seeming research convinced Mr. Eriksson of what became his guiding principle:
“I have been preaching that this is a much broader issue than we originally thought.
“We need to take a holistic approach,” an attitudinal path that led to comprehensive changes last evening in Culver City’s heavily revised policy regarding plastic and its threat to the environment.
The campaign to rid the community of the worst effects of polystyrene has been greatly broadened. “We are looking at a lot of other aspects beyond the original thinking,” Mr. Eriksson said. “We are talking about how we handle trash, about how we recycle, and what the replacement products might be.
“I feel I have been successful in expanding our mindset.”
