In its 100th anniversary year, Culver City has become the 108th city in the state to adopt an ordinance to ban the use of polystyrene food ware. The ban takes effect on Wednesday, Nov. 8.
The ordinance prohibits the sale of foam food ware, including the cooler variety that is not enclosed in another material, city officials said. Likewise, food establishments that provide takeout food orders, cannot use solid and foam Polystyrene food-ware products. Eateries are also required to ask their customers whether they want cutlery with their takeout orders.
Exempt from the ban are 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.
Ballona Creek Renaissance (BCR) brought its Polystyrene ban proposal to the City Council Sustainability Subcommittee, which in turn recommended it to the City Council, officials said. After careful deliberation, the City Council adopted the resolution to ban Polystyrene in the City.
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), and are commonly used by restaurants for take-out food orders, officials said.
A press release by the city emphasized the harmfulness of polystyrene.
“One of the primary examples of the amount of Styrofoam waste can be found in Ballona Creek. Ballona Creek, a focal point of the community, flows through Culver City as an open channel that drains storm water and urban runoff within the 130-square-mile Ballona Creek Watershed to the Pacific Ocean.
“Trash and other hazards, such as Styrofoam containers and cups, have entered Ballona Creek, breaking down into dangerously small particles, which pollute the water that flows directly to the Pacific Ocean. The City Council went even further in its efforts to prevent all types of trash that ends up in Ballona Creek by installing waste and recycling receptacles along the Creek bike path, as well as key areas within the Ballona Creek Watershed.”
For more information about the ban, visit www.culvercity.org/polystyreneban. To view a helpful educational video about the polystyrene ban, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRL-AkkNCMk.