Consider Directing Staff to Create a “Straws on Request” Ordinance and Review Ordinance No. 2977 to Address that “To Go” Food Ware, Including Straws, be Compostable or Recyclable.  (Mayor Spencer)  [Not heard on May 16, 2017 or June 6, 2017]
Considered directing staff to create a stop straws on request ordinance and review ordinance 2977 to address that to-go footwear, including straws be compostable or recyclable. Thank you. I had brought this referral and we have a couple of speakers on this that I had brought. It is a two part referral to create a straws on request ordinance and that other cities are at other cities. Not very many have started this, but when we do, our coastal cleanup and our plastic straws are really one of the things that we find that are like all over. And it's it's also you probably many of you probably seen the video of the damage they can do to our I'm going to say wildlife. But for instance, sea turtles, they get in the water. These straws also get in the water and can really damage our wildlife in the sea. And I also received I don't I don't know if this is in here, but quite a few classrooms from our local schools submitted handwritten letters in support of us doing this. And but what it really means is that we would be discouraging the use of plastic straws and and and that people would if they wanted to use a straw, they would have to ask for it and then they would, you know, receive straws that way if if the owner decided they wanted to have straws at all and you know how they wanted to do it. But, but they wouldn't it just automatically give you a plastic straw. And then the second part is other cities also looking at this, trying to move away from plastics as of plastic food, where there's just your forks, knives, the lids, the types of cups that are used to try to use more compostable and or recyclable materials. And again, it really primarily goes to trying to do our do our part as a city. And I would actually say be one of the cities leading the way on this effort to protect our environment long term. And I also want to thank Costa. They recently shared this movie, Time to Choose Many. And Alan Sean, he offered the theater out at the point for the viewing. And then we did also have many local vendors that offered food. And I actually forget the name of the company that did the food that volunteered that. But we had a pretty good turnout and I believe it was the night of a playoff game. So that just demonstrates how important this issue is to our community. And so that was why I brought the referral. And then I was going to go ahead and call the speakers at this time. All right, Andy Huntoon, Ruth, Abby and then Pat Lamborn. Did you want to speak on this one? Do you? This is a straws and plastic. All right, I have a slip from you. Actually, I just. Real simple. I'm not a straw person. But without actually requesting it, I cannot sit down to dinner at a restaurant without having a straw presented in my drink. Usually I just take it out, set it on the table. But I think I'll. I'll try to start working it out that I don't need a straw. I really have no use for me all the time. I use them as driving in my car. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Ruth. Abby. I'm Ruth Abby with the CASA Community Action for Sustainable Alameda, which was formed in 2008 to assist the city in implementing its Local Action Plan for Climate Protection. This issue actually came up back in 2010 when CASA worked with the Alameda Unified School District to implement their recycling and composting program, which was a part of the local action plan. At that time, the schools identified that straws, disposable straws, plastic straws were really not necessary for students to drink their milk's. And it was banned straws. They also banned spork packets. You now just get a spork or a napkin. You don't have the whole packet. So that was a great little reduction measure, waste reduction measure, reducing greenhouse gas reduction measure leadership by our schools and by our students. Last year, the students saw a presentation from Jackie Nunez from the Last Plastic Straw. And Mayor Spencer made reference to a movie that they saw that was very impactful for them about how straws and other plastic items impact sea life. Because Alameda is an island, because we are a city of homes and beaches, we are ones that are mostly impacted by this stuff. We have the responsibility to take leadership in this arena. Something like an ordinance like this might take some time to consider. Fortunately, when we did a little research on this, we found out that our ordinance is very similar to the ordinance passed by Santa Cruz County back in 2008. We already have an ordinance on the book that says all food wear needs to be recyclable or compostable. Straws are not recyclable or compostable lids and other things that are not necessary for eating food at a restaurant are not recyclable or compostable. And so we think that just like Santa Cruz County, we can interpret our local ordinance to say straws are already banned. This is something that might take a little bit outreach, education of our restaurants. We've reached out to the business community and got letters of support from Downtown Business Association and the Greater Alameda Business Association. Everyone that we've talked to have been very supportive. There does need to be kind of a level playing field because we are also working on a voluntary program. Very proud to say that Alameda has been selected over Oakland and over Berkeley as the community that will be hosting the Clean Water Funds. The packaging of Alameda is business community on Park Street. Maybe that was embargoed and I should have said it. But anyway, it's super exciting and we heard about that at the Davao Green team meeting. So we have been selected to, on a voluntary basis have the restaurants on Park Street going all the way down to South Shore to de package to reduce impacts on a voluntary basis, something like an interpretation of our ordinance to say and oh by the way, recyclable and compostable materials are required would really strengthen that voluntary program and create a level playing field across all of our restaurants communities. So really encourage the City Council to support the referral and have the city staff research this issue. The reason that we would like to separate it from the oops from the the planning process for the local action plan is because that schedule goes through 2019 and we think this could be happen much faster. Thank you, Pat Lamborn. And she's our last speaker on this. We got to speak on this. Please submit your slip. But hey. I debated whether to do this. Or not, but I decided. That you might like it. Mary Spencer. So I decided to do it. We were Girl Scout troop leaders together, so. You know how. It goes. I am passionate about this this referral. And I my husband and I walk all along the beach. He's passionate about collecting all plastic trash. And recently after I saw that. This referral was on. The was on the agenda committed, like, I've got to come and do this. And I said, Save every straw you pick up for me. And he's not here very often. He travels a lot. So but on two walks, he picked up this enormous amount of plastic straws. And this is between the, you know, the bridge, you know, whatever, you know, the one that goes to Harbor Bay and the LC Roemer Bird Sanctuary. I said, save them given to me. I'm going to my art class at Mastic Senior Center, and I'm gonna create an art piece with all these straws. Summer Spencer, out of gratitude to you for bringing these kinds of referrals. And sometimes when I come to the meetings, I'm like, I feel like I'm at a staff meeting. Should I stay until ten or 11? And in Your Honor, for bringing these issues up and listening to us, I have created an art piece. You also have the ability. It's up to you whether you take it or not. But it's a bird, and it's a fraction of the straws that my husband has created. I'm doing a series of pieces. I showed the folks from CASA the other piece. It is an enormous amount of straws. I'm not sure anyone will want these. Art pieces because they're kind of gross. And it's like, really? Those are straws. Yes, they're straws. From the beach. So it's yours. I want to put one condition on it. Right. If you take it and you want it forever, it's yours if you don't want it. The minute you guys pass a straw ordinance, you give it back to me. I would like to say. Right, because, you know, not everyone wants this. I would like to say I got so excited about this, you know, and really in honor of my husband, you know, because he picks up another item. Won't give you this one. Pics of syringes at the beach and usually finds one or two at a time. He has the opportunity to walk on the beach. We can't stop this. This is really a difficult. Behavior to control. But we can stop the straws. I would like to say I think OnDemand might be a good way to go in that I think we could do an amazing education program. And I would think we could encourage all the people who the people in school who sent you the letters to create straw art and ask merchants to post it. I already talked to West Café. That is a big old jar of jumbo. Straws, or someone with two jumbo straws in one smoothie. And I said to the manager, What do you think of that and what would you think of this ordinance? And he said, I think it might save us money. All right. So in some ways, I think if we created the right outreach program. Council member Ashcraft asked about, isn't this great? We're all recycling in a way. And in a way the only thing that's great is reduction in this could reduce. Thank you. It's yours if you want it. Yes, of course. I'll hang it in my office tomorrow. Under $50. Under $50 value, I assume. Member of the jury. Thank you. I guess I'll go first. So yeah, there are many way. I mean, I have my little handy dandy little straw, which you can also use. So there are other options besides besides plastic straws. So I appreciate that this referral in between the last meeting and this one now includes, you know, it's expanded to include more disposables. So I hope that we can give staff direction to come back with with some type of process, maybe an ordinance. Is it needed? I think, Ruth, you you sent us that email that if we interpreted our ordinance that we existing our existing ordinance like Santa Cruz, maybe we already have them. So I'd like to see if we can either do that or try other things, or even if we do have to do a new ordinance. There are a lot of other things we could do, and I just want to kind of rattle some off because I do serve on Stop Waste and I did have a chance to speak with or email the executive director on this, and I encourage businesses to participate in these local green certification programs. Bay Area Green Business Rethink Disposable. That's the clean water funds everything disposable. I mean, to the points that the speakers made, we did have a chance to honor Lola's Chicken Shack. That was in the in the presentation. I actually got to give them that award. And one of the maybe it was Pat who said that they do save money. I mean, they did this program and they reduced their the disposables and they actually are saving money. So encourage businesses to do that, offer pledges to be straw free, where businesses and individuals can like sign a pledge, just maybe kind of in a way to get the community involved and to increase awareness because we could pass an ordinance. But if we don't do anything special and encourage people to be part of it and buy into it, you know, I don't know how good it would be. You know, just looking at our own events, you know, city events require that city events be straw free. I mean, that way we could kind of lead, you know, lead by example, you know, and, you know, put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. And then, you know, when the from stop waste. Shared with me their students in Albany working with the Watershed Project, so similar to the ideas that the speakers shared, you know, getting students involved and making sure that they can help us, you know, understand that protecting watersheds and reducing litter in the watersheds is super important. So, you know, I like I'd like to see this happen. I don't know how it happens, but I like to give staff direction to work on it and come back with something with the goal of of reducing all of our disposal. So I appreciate that the referral was expanded from straws to other things. Thank you. Vice Mayor. I think it's great that we have something in place and I know we've been working towards getting to zero waste and we're all going to continue to work towards that goal. I think as much as we can, rather than just reinterpret or expand the interpretation of our existing ordinance, really add our intent into the ordinance in terms of what we're trying to get at regarding disposables, I think that that could be helpful into our existing ordinance to clarify that we do intend it to include all of these other disposables. I think education on this issue is key and we've seen it be effective, especially along Park Street. I'd love to see that education expand to South Shore Center, especially with the number of, you know, fast food restaurants that are there. I often walk on the beach as well and pick up a lot of trash and find a lot of it does come from, or at least based off of the branding comes from the nearby shops. And so I think if we can, we can work there. I do also want to be mindful of ableism issues relative to this. I have a friend who when Berkeley passed their straw ban. She has a life altering disability and needs straws in order to be able to ingest liquids. And so I want to make sure that whatever we do and this goes to the education piece, there are so many other types of straws available, paper straws which are compostable. There are about other biodegradable options as well as the metal straws. And so in terms of helping our businesses make sure that they're as we consider universal design and all these other things, really educating them about the different options that are available. I would like us to look at that because I really do worry about the efficacy of of these sorts of ordinances. And while I think we can make this great point of changing our laws, if we're not able to enforce them and really educate people in terms of how they can comply with the spirit of what we're trying to achieve, it comes up empty. So I want to make sure that we're doing all of those things. But I also think the Mayor for bringing this referral near there. Comments member Ashcroft. Thank you, Mayor. So a couple of things. One is we did hold a priority setting workshop a while back, and I think this would probably fall under quality of life slash environment, which we the council rated as a medium priority. I also would like to hear before we finish discussing this and take a vote, I'd like to hear from staff about what we're already doing in this direction. And I did meet with Ruth Abbey, who I have great respect for, for all our hard work over the years. And Debbie Ryan, is that the correct name? And when we sat and had our drinks without straws on the patio, we I talked about an ordinance means you create this law. What's the enforcement mechanism? What who does that do? How do you. Because it you don't want just paper, you know, words on paper. You want it to be meaningful. And so I did think that public education is really an important piece. And in fact, you talked about that when you talked, Ms.. Abby, when you talked about the ESD efforts. I don't think the school district created, you know, a mandate and said no straws, but working through the children and that's powerful. But I also did mention our business associations, the Chamber of Commerce that and as cost savings is one of the one of the selling points, it just might be that you could reduce your your cost by not putting those straws out there. And I'm sorry, I need to interrupt because it's about to be 1030 and I need to see if we have a motion to consider the two remaining items, nine B, which is the cannabis referral, and ten A, the league appointments and then the nominations are not part of this process. So just. Is there a second, second all those in favor. I, I. Know. No. Okay. So then does that mean we can't consider these other items means. You can't add another item after 1030. After 1030. So we will not get to the cannabis or the league tonight. This is my understanding. We need to designate early. You have time. We can bring it back. We have a. Meeting, but. Okay. The annual conference is until September, right? So anyway, my my point is just that I think the effort is worth taking the form it takes, whether when we update our CASA regulations, whatever or guidelines, it folds into that. I think remains to be seen. But I would like to hear about what staff has in mind. So at the pleasure of the mayor, either after you're the last. Two. Council members, but Liam and Liam has done some information. So whenever you want to talk about his plans, they are very consistent with what we've heard so far. All right. So now I'm happy to hear that I personally and remember Madison, did you want to speak at this point? Yes, I. Would. Okay. Go ahead. I'm vague because we're talking about a specific referral here. And I think this is important to do. We have the local action plan, the mandates, we do things. And if it's not written down, it doesn't count. So I do think I agree with the referral that we direct staff to come back with to us with a broader than just straws, but the disposable food items including and highlighting straws and, but taking into account the comments of my colleagues as input, I think we need to do this posthaste. And I also think this is the people's business, these ordinances and a lot of them, you know, we have to figure out how to how to accomplish them. And if we're going to fulfill the the direction that's given in the approved plan that we do have, which is also being updated. Thank you. Okay. So then. I'm sorry, Mr. Gardner's comments, were they going to be in regards to this referral or they. Yes. In regards to this program or the plan here, you're at a staff level of how to implement this. I'm happy to hear your ideas before I comment. Great staff is definitely in support of the referral. In fact, the timing's really good. As Ruth Abby mentioned this embargoed grant. Hopefully we're going to finalize that very soon. That kicks off a big outreach and education process with 80 or more businesses here in Alameda, where there's going to be individual support for those businesses to rethink packaging in those businesses. That's a big step forward and like what we've done in a fair amount of our work. There's a nice sequence to it, which is your your push on the voluntary, the outreach, the education. And if there's a need to go mandatory, then you do that after you've done the outreach and education. Obviously, we've talked a bunch about the Climate Action Plan. I'm going to be back in front of you in December presenting the scope for that. And that might sound like not a lot, but that scope is going to include a menu of policy options for the council to then direct staff to run out and achieve on a pretty quick basis. And so what I'd urge and in considering approving this a referral is to think about not just this policy action, but the whole menu of actions that Alameda can take to help be as green and environmentally friendly as we can be. And the best decisions about which policies to take are when you see that full menu. What are the easy ones that we check off the list? Potentially this is one of those what are the harder ones but potentially get us more bang for the buck earlier. Those are the kinds of decisions we'll start engaging in in December after doing this outreach and education, working closely with CASA, who's already routes, already been sitting, one green team meeting with us and building the case for which policies to move forward with. So I appreciate that. I don't support that. There's no way I want to wait until December. I brought a referral because I think it's critical that we move forward on at least this part. I don't think it's that hard. I think it's very clear cut. Other communities are doing it, so I want it to move forward. I am hoping that staff can actually interpret our current 2977 to include this and that. It's not that long to turn this thing around, but no, I'm sorry. With all due respect, I just I'm not supportive of waiting until December for this pardon. What's the timeframe that you're thinking would be right now? I actually think that they can look at it, staff can look at the current ordinance, do what Santa Cruz did, interpret it so that it does actually cover this and that we can start, I would say, of. No later than when we go on break. And it's probably July's probably falls out in August. We're on break, but I'd say September. But I want to separate it from everything else, because that can just drag everything out. I mean, let's look at just what happened. I've had a referral. It's 1035 and I couldn't get four votes to go past 1030. So at least this one. What I'm hearing from council is that they are supportive. So when I hear that, I actually will do want to move forward. So. So, I mean, that's, that's nice that I have the support from counsel at least on this referral. So I'd like staff to be able to separate this part from the other climate stuff. And let's move forward on this part. I just want to clarify something, which is, as I understand it, this Santa Cruz ordinance that does that is not about this draws on request. That is more about the the fact that. You're saying a different material. Yeah. The to go. Right which is actually. From all. Yeah. Yeah, but it's. But that would allow paper straws, as my understanding, just a different material. But I'd like to move forward with the referral. I heard support from Council Vice Mayor. I just have one question. Do we would we have to do are we looking at new language in our ordinance? I mean, are we able to just reinterpret our ordinance or do we actually have to change the language? Because I have a question whether that's something that we have to do and if we do have to change the language, what's the time frame for actually looking into that? Can I can I just. Okay. So let's look at Santa Cruz and what they did. What Santa Cruz County had is a polystyrene ordinance. Much like what we have with some similar language. And they had their Department of Public Works issue a rule that was approved by their county board of Supervisors. So in essence, was an amendment or a clarification of the language within their their ordinance. There's another critical piece here, which is, I don't believe that all of the business associations have replied to say that they're in support of this move. There's still more public input and outreach to be done before we could come back. I shouldn't say that. You can tell me not to go do that. Right? No, no. But that always happens as part of the referral is simply that staff looks at the substantive part and tries to bring it back in. And at that point. But so there will be another hearing. I mean, another agenda item, right. When then people from the community can come here and say whether they support it or not, that referral is actually pretty clear. Yeah. I mean, I think what we're saying is we're starting now on the first steps of outreach to the businesses, education to the public and not and skipping the step of coming back and starting it by. Here's the plan because we wanted to start now. And so we're saying instead of approving this referral, coming back in July with a plan of outreach, Liam is already outlined. We're going to go start the outreach to all the businesses, the 80 businesses, do the input and then come back. That is not the referral process. I really don't understand what's happening here. We have okay, we can we can act on a referral staff and I would have really so. So I appreciate that staff has their own idea but that I don't think that's what the referral is and I feel like I have the support of council , so which is to move forward. And I appreciate vice mayor's comments. If the ordinance can be interpreted and do it this other way, maybe we need to add some additional language, maybe we don't. But then that could be it appears that it could be a relatively simple fix. Either it needs additional language or it can be interpreted in and we can start enforcing and letting our our businesses. But it would still come back to council with that answer yes member matter. Madam Mayor, I really appreciate that there is an effort to get out there now to start the educational process and lay the groundwork for what's coming, for what's come in. I would like to make a motion that we direct staff to create a start. A start draws on request ordinance. With the appropriate additions that include the question of capacity composability the question of innate. You know what you said about people who need straws and to also the alternative to put in a reading on the current ordinance to see if it covers the intent of this. But Vice Mayor, would that also include other disposables or just straws? I think that the question here expanded beyond the plastic to go where I think was the as as written in the body of the referral. And the reason that I'm making this motion is I understand that this other process is working, and it's good that it's working. But if we don't get this in the queue now, it will not happen. So I want to know what could happen sooner rather than later. And then we can move on that when that response comes back. Thank you. Member Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll be happy to second that with the, you know, add on that we start the outreach. I mean, we don't have to wait to start the outreach. I mean, we can do the outreach now. Councilman Brody, I think that's I agree with you. And I think that's where I understood from the manager and Mr. Garland that the outreach is starting now, regardless of what we vote on tonight. So we. Should still be. Clear. I, I accept that there's a second. And I'm happy to be. A member. Ashcraft So what's the time frame on all this? Are you asking staff? Mr. Councilmember Meadows. He made the motion with the time frame. Well, we're we're probably not going to have it for the next meeting because of the time that it takes to put this together. But I expect something back at least a determination on which way we're going to go before we hit recess. And then it's going to take if it's an ordinance that we're a new ordinance we're going after or a revised ordinance, it's going to take two meetings. And then I'm looking at the ranking here. But that gives us a week. Yeah, I don't think we're going to get there. If we go before the break for July 18th to get it into the queue. Is that. Yeah. I don't think that I think is at the earliest practical moment and that's September basically. September was about it suggested then you have August and then I would hope you have plenty of time to at least that part of it. Right. So there's a motion and I believe the second. And can. I. Yeah, I need clarification. Are we talking about a new ordinance or are we talking about amending the ordinance that is also. Staff that. Is within the. Emotion. Of the rest of your question. It. Well, what is it? You're. Because we could. There's two possibilities. Well, at least two in the staff in the council referral considering directing staff to create a stop straws on request ordinance as outlined in the attached. Also consider directing staff to review Army's current polystyrene foam food service wear reduction ordinance, which I think was what the vice mayor was asking. How long would it take if we're just talking about amending language in an existing ordinance? And to answer your question, I put that is an order that staff would come back and say which one we which one they recommend us doing. Okay. We still have to do it. So really, we applied it to staff to make that decision. No. To provide us with the options and a recommendation, we would make the decision. So I think what we're asking for, or at least what I think I'm asking for, is for staff to come back to say, yes, we it is possible to amend our ordinance. This is what it would look like potentially, or we could create a separate ordinance or we could go through a rule process. And it was the easiest. And then we're asking and then we would make a determination then. And then we would go into a first reading, second reading after that. And the mayor said, Whatever is the easiest way I understand. That's my understanding is really what it's going to come down to. How do we get this happening in our city as quickly as possible? I'm not gonna say the easiest, but what's the most effective in. In a timely manner? Right. Well, I want to. I do. I agree. It has to be effective. That's the point of the speaker in this case. And so what I'm hearing is the council wants an ordinance regardless. We have spoken stop waste. And we've spoken to a number of different people who said the most effective way to do it is to start with education. And but I'm hearing that the council is directing just one of two ordinances. My motion is recognizing that you're already starting with it, because you said the most effective way is to start with. I want an ordinance because if it's not written down, it doesn't count. So that's my motion is to have an ordinance. And I got a second. All right. With the conditions. Okay. Okay. All those in favor. I opposed. Abstain. A case of motion passes. Four in favor. One abstention. Thank you. And now we jump to ten B I actually. Chen is counsel of communications. Any matter of I'm going to do ten B first at this point.