Recommendation to request City Attorney to amend the Polystyrene Food Packaging ordinance in the Long Beach Municipal Code (Chapter 8.63) to remove the exemption for #6 plastic lids to encourage a transition to recyclable alternatives; include language that all straws be made available only upon request in any food establishment and that those straws must not be plastic or bio-plastic; and Request City Manager to work with Public Works Environmental Services Bureau and other appropriate departments to align implementation of these amendments with Phase 3 of the Expanded Polystyrene Ordinance, on December 3, 2019.
Thank you. And with that members, Mr. Gordon, cast your votes. Ocean carries 13, please. Communication from Councilmember Urunga Council member Pearce, Councilwoman Price. Councilman Mungo Recommendation to request city attorney to amend the Polystyrene Food Packaging Ordinance to remove the exemption for number six plastic lids by city manager to work with Public Works Environmental Services Bureau to align implementation of these amendments with Phase three of the expanded polystyrene ordinance. Thank you, Councilman Ringa. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank my colleagues to join me on this item, Councilmember Pearce, Price and Mongo. It's very important for us to continue the efforts that we started with the number 12 item quality. Before I begin, I want to make just a quick quote that I always use when we have items like this come forward and that is change is inevitable. And in a progressive society, change is constant. And that's why one of my favorite philosophers, Benjamin Disraeli. And that's what we are doing here. We're looking at including straws and other smaller, smaller polystyrene products. It becomes very important for us to make a commitment to improve our our surroundings, protect our and protect our environment. As a member of the City Council and as a member of the Coastal Commission. It's important for me to keep in mind that we want to keep our environment clean and we want to keep that access to our beaches as well as we can. So before I begin with a with a report from from staff, I'd like to show a little brief video we can to that up, please. Well, that was. I've been working. In the same way. Missing now the cracks in the. And in my own store, in my free. Who call. No, thank you. Please, my. Anglo is just wondering. From my. Home town. We? I like it. In the city when the air is so. Everybody. Shops and shops. He ran to. King defense I. Shows The way ain't gonna stand shit show the way I united shows the we ain't gonna take. Shows the way ain't gonna stand shit show Louis United. Thank you for that. I don't mean to limit it on a bummer, but, you know, it's very real with what's happening in this world in terms of what I would plastics. So I'm not going to go a lot into it. I think we already seen the video. It's pretty compelling in terms of the message that it says. So with that, I want to basically just give two options here that we want that I would like to have included in the food packaging ordinance. Never be for one to remove the exemption for number six plastic lids to encourage a transition to recyclable alternatives and to include language that all straws be made available only upon request in any food establishment. And that those straws must be plastic, must be not be plastic or bioplastic. The first proposal, basically, is to eliminate the use of plastic covers and use alternatives, and the second is to make straws available only upon request. You know, I went to my local convenience store and I bought a package here of 25 straws for $2. So they're very affordable. They're they're paper. And I know that people have an issue with paper. There's also issues with people with disabilities who have to absolutely have straws that are more easily usable and don't biodegrade as quickly as maybe a paper straw. But there are other alternatives, and I would love to have that when the report comes back that we could get some artful options included in there that people can use as far as alternatives to straws made out of maybe not only paper, but there's options like pasta. And I heard one today from from acting the acting secretary of the Apple Apple Straws, which was amazing to me. So there are some alternatives out there. And if people really have a need for a straw, you could buy some of these metal straws that fold easily into your pocket. I think I gave each one of you one here. But basically what it is, is it's a straw in a little container. It holds up very easily. Well, if I can get my out here just to demonstrate what's taking place. That's real good, right? I mean, you know, you're trying to show something. You can get it out. There you go. So it folds and it goes into this little container that you have. And then when you stretch it out, there's a strong you can pull it back and put it in. It also comes with the little brush where you can so that you can clean it inside. So if if a person really needs to have a struggle with him on a constant basis all the time, you could get get one of these also, you can buy one of these in your convenience store as well as to make that available for you. So with that, I want to wish that they could get the support of my colleagues to support this these amendments to the the food the food packaging audience so that we can make straws less polluting and protect our oceans. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Price. Thank you, Councilmember, for bringing this item forward. I support it. I really like that video. Thank you for sharing that with us. And as a Coastal Commissioner, I'm sure you hear lots and lots of really unfortunate stories about how pollution impacts habitats and the oceans. So thank you for sharing that experience with us on the Council. I do have a question. I do. I like the option of allowing straws upon request, but can we have some sort of a phase out option that allows them to phase out their plastic straws if they already have them? So like it would still be option a straw upon request, but they could finish out the plastic straws that they have. So give them like, I don't know, six months to comply or something. It would be. I would be open to that. Yes. Thank you. And if I could just add kind of a timing component to this discussion, we would need to come back with an ordinance in conference with the city attorney that would need two readings. So it would be a real challenge for us to do that before December 3rd. So maybe what council is discussing this evening, if it were to be passed, this could become, say, a phase four. And we pick a time frame that would whether that's January or something along those lines, that we would implement this kind of phase four element. That would be a suggestion to this council. Well, since I agree with Councilman Price's recommendation about phasing, and I think that would be an appropriate approach to this this issue. Yeah. Thank you, Vice Mayor Andrews. Yes, thank you. And I want to thank my colleague and council. We rang up to bring this item forward because I think a lot of people look at items such as these and wonder why we adopted them because were not really nitpicking. And I believe everyone it was called to be a good steward of their environment. And more importantly, we have been elected to be a steward of our city. You know, straws can be seen as a small matter, but it litters our beaches and streets. Today, the Wrigley cleanup team points out stars are one of the major items that they collect when they clean around the neighborhood. So we can adopt some alternative we should, and in doing so, will make our city much cleaner. Thank you very much, Mr. Urunga, for bringing this. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. I just wanted to comment. Recently traveled to Oakland and in meeting with our former airport director who happened to be at the Oakland airport, we talked about what type of stores they had there and they were made out of apples. The county of Los Angeles had cups and lids made out of corn. They don't taste like corn. They don't taste like apples. They taste like any other straw. And they're far superior to the paper straws. And so I don't know what research we can do, but he said that after mass purchasing for the entire airport, they were able to bring those costs down considerably. I'm a person who drinks nearly everything out of a straw. Many, many years ago, I have tooth sensitivity. I know other people drink out of straws to keep their teeth white because they drink coffee out of straws. I don't. But there are lots of reasons why straws are very useful. And so I'd love for us to be very pragmatic about the options and hopefully create another product people want to buy that's environmentally friendly. So thank you for this councilmember. I think the timing on this is great this time. I think more cities and regions have really adopted environmentally friendly options, and so I think this will get us there. Thank you. Customer Supernova. Thank you. I just wanted clarification on on the proposed ordinance. So we're looking to stop the, let's say, restaurants from having the products in stock. But the behavior is not regulated here, that someone can bring a plastic straw into a restaurant and use it. Is that correct? And so the issue of people with disabilities. I would just like to maybe explore that if I don't understand the difference. If someone on demand wanted a plastic straw, but due to a disability, would that be feasible or would this ban just outlaw the restaurant from from having those products in stock? That's what I'm from what I'm hearing. I think the goal would be is that we would work with the restaurants to have alternative options. And so, for example, if there was a member of our community with a disability and wanted a straw, I mean, similar to the example that we shared this evening, there are alternatives to plastic that can still serve the same purpose. Okay, I guess that would be the better goal. But if I wasn't seeing a difference between someone carrying one in from a store and this does not regulate retail sales once again. So the the juice boxes with the little straw glued on the side will still be in existence, unfortunately. And the other thing for Manager Makoni and I think we have a dual purpose goal here and that is number one, to remove it from the litter and also you'd prefer remove from your waste stream or what you have to deal with when you pick up. Recycle bins or trash bins? Absolutely. As you may be aware, the recycling markets, the commodity, passive commodities do not have any value anymore. And in fact, over the years, whereas contract cities would that would get revenue from their service providers over the years for their commodities, things have turned upside down and cities are now paying to get rid of what used to be a recyclable commodity. So we are actually investigating changes in our own curbside programs to address that issue. Okay. And then one last issue. I think I saw either a Facebook posting or Twitter that you're recommending reusable. Trick or treat bags. Did I read that? Okay. You're nodding yes. Okay. Great minds think alike. Here's a go forth trick or treat bag. So call our office if you'd like. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I heard about that bag actually, today at lunch, I was at a fire meeting up in the region, and I heard about your bags. Since we are on the polystyrene agenda item. Would it be possible to get in a two from four back what the outreach might look like on this? And then also folding in getting rid of the plastic food containers, retail sales. And Styrofoam. So Councilmember staff is working on a24 from memo that kind of encapsulate everything that we talked about this evening and provide a little bit more details into our. Outreach strategies in the successes. That we've had thus far. So that should be coming to the council here shortly. I think it would be more appropriate and this would be a suggestion that when we come back with the amended language in the ordinance, that at that time we would share in some kind of report style as we present that ordinance with different options and different recommendations. And to me, when the council adopted that ordinance, they would expand. If you wanted to include retail limitations at that time, or if you're going to instruct us tonight to put that in, I think we would need to get that direction. I'm comfortable with adding that direction tonight that we'd want to go that direction. Councilmember Ortega. That a. Friendly. And the. Yeah. Yeah. That's. Except wonderful. Thank. It's all to finish up. You're talking about maybe another phased in approach to this ordinance as we as you move forward. Earth Day is April 22nd, 2020, that six months. We could do it by Earth Day. It's a request to see if we can do it. We'll certainly do our best. I certainly hope you will. Thank you. Mr. City. Attorney. Yeah, Mayor. If I could get some clarification on the friendly that was just made. I'm not sure. Will that be part of phase four? Yes. And what will it. What are we asking to in at that time to include in the. Retail sales of Styrofoam food containers? Cups, bowls. Utensils all stir. All Styrofoam. We're going to take the suggestion of public works when they bring back that. But we're looking to head that direction. And hopefully the two from four will include language that we could adopt that night. When we have public works that come up with that timeline and how we do it. Okay. So it's just I think. Yes, to clarify, we're hearing that we're going to move forward with the ordinance this evening, the amendment to the ordinance that we would come back with a timeline for implementation sometime in January. Right. And at that time, when we bring back the ordinance, we would also make a recommendation for an additional phase that would expand into retail sales for this council to consider. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. City Attorney. Anything else? Just just. The one caveat when they come back with that recommendation, if you can either. Adopt the ordinance as written or instruct us to add that it'd have to come back for a first reading, or we could do another. Amendment. And that's not a problem either way. Thank you. There's no public comment. Okay. I said thank you for both of these earlier. But what you brought up those little juicy boxes. I'm going to tell you that I've been in the park clean ups and those are a nightmare. I mean, there are 9000 little tiny pieces. And because they're so tiny, everyone throws them on the ground. So I don't know if there's anything you can do about juicy boxes, but if you can try. Thank you. I want to make some closing comments. One is I completely commend the city council and the city staff for working on this issue and the council members that have continuously brought this issue up. Some of us were here when a minority of us were trying to get plastic bags banned and we were the worst people ever and anti-business. And we're going to run Long Beach into the ground and to see the city and the way it's moved so quickly from plastic bag bags to to plastics and to straws and to all the other work around polystyrene is really impressive. I wanted to thank now State Senator Lena Gonzalez, who brought forward the initial ban on polystyrene. And I also wanted to thank the person that I think started this conversation. At least she she led it when I was here. And that was then Councilwoman Susan Lowenthal, who was the original introducer of all these things that everyone didn't like initially. And I wanted to say that what's interesting about this item and I want to think, Councilman, your Ranga and Councilman Price, Councilwoman Mongeau and Councilmember Pearce at all signed on to this is these actions have consequences statewide . And when we passed when we passed our plastic bag ban it affected the state's then decision on on plastic bags are polystyrene work has affected the way the state deals with public steering and what we're doing with straws will affect further laws. Statewide, Long Beach has always led on these issues and I'm really proud that this council continues to do that. And so it's very exciting items and really, really most importantly, love the work of our city staff on this. You guys have been so great in going out to the neighborhoods. I've visited some of the businesses with all of you. I've talked to the business owners and I have loved seeing some of my favorite restaurants that used to use polystyrene and having seen them now convert to other products, paper and other products has been really great to see. So thank you very much. Members, please cast your votes.