Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Sections 8.63.020, 8.63.030, 8.63.050 and 8.63.070; all relating to prohibiting the use and sale of single-use food and beverage containers, packaging and food service ware made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, rigid polystyrene #6, and non-recyclable and non-compostable material for prepared food distribution, and the distribution of plastic for bio-plastic straws, read and adopted as read.   (Citywide)
Motion carries. Item. Next item. 28 Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to declare ordinance. Amending the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to prohibiting the use and sale of single use food and beverage containers, packaging and food service where made of expanded polystyrene foam. Read the first time in the lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading. Thank you. I think there's a presentation. So I'll turn this over to Mr. Modica. Yes. Craig Beck and his team will give a presentation reminding us of kind of the long history of this of this effort and what the next step is. Thank you, Mayor. City council members we wanted to bring tonight before you an amendment proposed for the polystyrene ordinance as directed by this council back in October. And we've had a lot of success with the implementation in the first three phases. And so this would be an amendment to that and then a proposal for we'll call it a phase for getting into the details of what's before you this evening is dico mokonyane and he's going to go through the powerpoint. You go. Good evening, Mayor. Mr.. And Council Members, thank you for having us back here today. As Mr. Beck said, we've had some tremendous success with the first three phases of the expanded polystyrene ordinance. And at your request, we've come back with some follow up regarding some other materials that could be affected by this ordinance. So back in October, we had well before we get to October. There we go. As you recall, the first three phases were implemented beginning in September of 2018. Phase that was for city owned facilities and events. Phase two is for large food service providers, defined as 101 seats or more so very large restaurants. And phase three was small food providers of less than 100 seats or less. And that last phase just went into effect in December of last this past year. In October of this past year, we gave a presentation updating the city council as to the progress we've made. And at that time, the City Council requested to expand the ordinance to include language that would ban the use of plastic or bioplastic straws and eliminate couplet exemption couplet exemptions. By March 15th, approximately, it was a six month request. You have before you an ordinance that's being presented today and since it was drafted, we did have some last minute discussions and based on some conversations we've had, we are going to recommend that the City Council consider an exemption for consumers who identify as a person with disability, making the use of a plastic straw a necessity for them. Also, the City Council asked that we come back with a recommendation that expands the ban into retail sales. So just to get a little background here. You can see what we're doing is fairly forward thinking, but we're not the first ones out there. There are other cities who have done similar bans. So a lot of the large companies that we'd be working with for retail bans are chains with a retail like a McDonald's or franchises have experienced this in other cities around the country. 20 cities currently have an ordinance regarding the use of straws, and 26 cities have retail ordinances that restrict the sale of polystyrene products. So the staff recommendation comes from mostly looking at similar cities as surrounding us. Like Manhattan Beach was one of the ones we considered San Diego as an area we considered, and our proposed ordinance is very similar to theirs. As you can see, no person, vendor, business or event promoter in the city shall sell rent or otherwise provide polystyrene food service where products which are not wholly encapsulated or encase with a more durable material including but not limited to cups, cups, lids, condiment cups, food trays, plates, bowls, clamshells and other food service use. We're also recommending that we extend it to polystyrene packing materials. So again, no person, vendor, business or promoter shall distribute polystyrene packing material, including things like foam peanuts, packing peanuts and packing noodles. And finally, no person, vendor or business or event promoter may sell, rent or otherwise distribute within the city. Meat and fish trays like you see at supermarkets are produce trays or egg cartons made in part from polystyrene. Again, these are relatively common materials that are included in bans in other cities. So just to celebrate some of our successes here, we have nearly an 85% compliance rate as of January 31st this year. And what makes that really extraordinary is that data goes back to September of last year and phase three hadn't even been a requirement yet until December. And we still, for that extended period of four months, have, sorry, September, October, five months have an 85% success rate. A lot of the reason some of the reason why there's a 15% noncompliance rate is because people are still expiring their existing inventory. And so while they're not in violation of the ordinance, we also didn't want to pretend like they're in compliance yet with the ordinance. So they're listed as a non-compliant side. But this is something the ordinance allows and would also allow for straws. We did a lot of outreach and promotion mailers to businesses, social media, door knocking, had some giveaways, and we did a multi-year educational program on that. And we have also resources on our website to assist businesses to comply. So what we'd like to suggest today, again, it's a slight variation and from what is in the draft ordinance and this is again because of discussions that happened since then in the last couple of days is the straws and lids would be effective sometime after March 15th, 2020. And that keeps us in line with the six month request that the council motion had originally put together. The goal is to get that in by Earth Day so that we can celebrate that as a success here in Long Beach for a day and also a retail ban to follow come October 1st. That's all I have for this evening. And I'm open to questions. Thank you, Councilman Ringa. Thank you, Mary. And I want to thank staff for putting this together and really looking at closely at what we're trying to do here and especially tried to reduce deadlines as we currently have. One question in regards to page three, where you recommend for consumers who self-identify as a person with a disability to make use of a plastic straw necessary? Is that. Well, maybe it's more to the city attorney with that amendment, to the original ordinance that we put that we proposed back in October, have an effect of basically having this as a new reading for this ordinance. Would it change that much? Yes. Vice Mayor and members of the council. Councilmember, you're wrong. That is correct. These changes would require us to come back and bring this back for a first reading. We can do that very quickly, but they are substantive in nature. And so we will bring it back for a first and second reading. Okay. I'm not opposed to that. I think it's a good idea that we include that. It would make it, I think, even stronger in regards to what we're trying to implement here. So thank you for bringing this forward. Thank you. Councilwoman, is this. Yes. I also want to thank staff for this and my colleagues for actually working really hard on bringing the system forward. I'm excited to see that Long Beeches is moving forward on something like this. And I think that, you know, as a person with a disability that can lift up a cup of glass to drink from, I thank you again for all those that are out there in my same situation who don't have the necessary strength to actually pick up a cup and drink from it, especially when it's full. So thank you for that and I look forward to supporting this item. Thank you, Councilwoman Councilmember Pierce. Yes, I am super excited about your 85% compliance rate. I think that in the history of Long Beach has been a lot of times when we've had a vision, we've had a new ordinance and implementation hasn't gone that great because we haven't had the best community outreach. And that's just part of learning how to do it. And I think that you guys have really excelled and should be really proud. I'm really proud of Long Beach for this, especially considering how tough I think our very first conversation on this was. It really demonstrates how far we've come. And so I just really want to applaud you for that. And I want to applaud the city for the amendments, considering council members and de Haas's input and really just demonstrating that diversity on the council really can change policy. So thank you, guys. Thank you, Councilman Supernova. Thank you. Thanks, staff, for that presentation. And regarding the change to the ordinance. I'd like to read that exact language as proposed in a special thanks to the city attorney's office for working in the 11th hour on this. And I'd just like to add. That. The amendment would be reflective of cities such as Seattle and also California Coastal Commission cities, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. So I'll read the text as it will appear. Exemption A food provider or beverage provider is exempt from the provisions of this chapter under the following conditions. One. During a locally declared emergency, the city emergency response agencies operating within the city users of city facilities. And food providers and beverages shall be exempt from provisions of this chapter to the food provider or beverage provider provides or distributes a plastic beverage straw upon request to individuals with disabilities as needed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. And I believe I need to make that as a motion for the amendment. I think you've clarified the motion that's on the floor, so you're good on that. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to add that I'm really, really proud of the work that you guys have done on this. And I'm so glad that we've been ahead of the curve as it relates to policy steering, and particularly on these issues around straws and the work that the team has done to proactively get restaurants to transition out of the polystyrene. It's been it's just been really great. And I've been personally hap as an active user of takeout and Postmates. I've seen the change that's happened just in the last year from some of my favorite places that it just I just did not like that they still use polystyrene and now they've all converted, you know, to paper or other other types of products. And so it's really great. And I'm always, you know, happy to see that. And you guys did a great job. So I just want to thank all of you for for that work. Can you remind me on the on the straw issue paper straws were are we encouraging any type of transition or what what's the the preferred model that folks are transitioning to? Or is that really up to them? Mr. Mayor, it's really up to them. We're trying not to suggest that people use any one particular product, just that it not be plastic or bioplastic. You have some restaurants that are actually offering you a paper straw, or you can buy a metal reusable straw and just keep it for yourself. Open sesame, I believe, down in the shadows then. So we have, you know, we're allowing restaurants to get creative and do whatever they want to make it happen. I also see more and more of the of restaurants just, you know, not obviously having them. And I think it's been so easy to transition to that, you know, for for most folks or even even larger retailers like like Starbucks, right. Who are now putting the the lids on on the on the top, which is really great to see. So good. Really good stuff. Councilwoman Mango. I'm a big supporter of straws generally, and I carry my own. Roberto. Durango straw in my purse. I've used it at many L.A. facilities, but I will say that as I've traveled around the country, I recently visited an airport that has an airport director that used to work here in Long Beach. And I will say that their entire facility adopted Apple straws and having used nearly every kind of straw on councilmember souvenirs lists that he just showed me, Apple was not listed on there. And I don't know if we provide a list of all the alternatives and their price points, but that was something that helped encourage this other airport by saying, here's a lot of options and here's a lot of the price points and here's how they come and here's how you can order them. Because a lot of our smaller retailers still go to like Sam's Club or Smart and Final within the city limits to pick up things. And so they've helped by encouraging those those suppliers as well. So I'm really proud of the work we've done. I can't believe I carry a straw in my purse, but I do. And when I go out of the house without a purse, the three things I grab to put in my diaper bag are my reusable straw, my sunglasses and my earbuds for my phone. So, I mean, the straw made the cut. That's a pretty high standard. Not even Chapstick made it. So thank you for helping me be a better environmentalist. And can I just get one? I have one question for for the staff before we go to a vote actually. And then I have Craig called Waldner. I think it says here, I'll call you up in 1/2. So thank you. Want make sure you were here. Can I also ask I think the one will you give me an update on any sort of ordinances or additional laws that the City of Signal Hill has implemented as it relates to all of our laws? Because I think one of the things that's interesting, I think Signal Hill still there. They still have plastic bags. Well, plastic bags are now a statewide statewide issue. The state has some legislation regarding straws that would affect all cities. Yeah. And what it says essentially is that a restaurant or food service provider must ask if someone you have, you have to wait till someone asked for a straw. So the state state law is implementing it doesn't they don't in signal health, to my knowledge. Ban plastic straws there. Okay. Okay. I was wondering if we'd. Be happy in the interest of uniformity to reach out to them and share with them what we're doing so that, you know. I think I think if they could just afford them what we're doing and it'd be nice to have that kind of uniformity as well, if possible. Reach out to their city manager there. Their own, you know, government. So I get that there's a motion and a second is, please, Craig. If Craig called, water could come forward. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Craig Cadwallader and I'm speaking on behalf of the Surfrider Foundation South Bay chapter. And I'm very proud that you're moving forward with this amend these amendments. I was going to bring in the wording in the Manhattan Beach ordinance about the accommodations for people with disabilities, but it sounds like you've got it in there. And to me it was wrong not to have it. So I'm glad I'm glad you're proactive on that. It's very important. One of the things and also the the straws part of this is not that clear. So perhaps at the next first reading, the straws could be more clearly. There's only one sentence that reads All straws must be plastic or must not be plastic or bioplastic. I think if you miss that sentence, you don't get it. And other ordinances there currently are 136 by my count, in the state. Not all of them include the straws. I almost have them all memorized, which I work on this all the time with a lot of cities. But if it were clear that the plastic, including petroleum and bioplastic based straws are not acceptable, one of the options mentioned I bring these everywhere I go. I got my own straws and utensils. It's unfortunate utensils are included in this because they are in many other ordinances, including Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Culver City, and we're trying to get regional ordinances down here. So I hope you might look at that. I don't know why utensils were exempted, but they never get recycled. They're always landfilled. And I think this is the good way to go to bring in the rough food expanded polystyrene tray ban is really important I'm glad that's included and the packing peanuts and expanded polystyrene packing items those we find on the beach all the time. We're really looking this is a good, strong way to improve the ordinance. We are working on L.A. County, unincorporated right now. What you do here is going to help define that and we hope will get the city of L.A. to match that. I also bring my own collapsible food containers so you can bring your own by state law. Now, AB 619 was signed into law. Bring your own. It's easier. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And with that, there's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Councilman's in Dallas.