The city of Sunnyvale’s ban on foam food containers officially goes into effect on Earth Day.
City staff worked for the past six months with local food vendors, preparing them for the ban on the use and sale of expanded polystyrene (EPS) food containers in the city.
As of April 22, the ban will make it unlawful for food vendors to use EPS food containers, including those for beverages. The ban exempts the use of polystyrene for prepackaged foods sold in retail stores and non-food businesses that use polystyrene for packaging.
The ordinance will affect sit-down restaurants, fast-food eateries, cafeterias, delicatessens, catering trucks and carts, festivals or any place that provides ready-to-consume food or beverages to the public.
In the span of six months, the city did blanket mailings of postcards and coordinated outreach meetings with business owners and vendors of alternative containers. The Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce helped spread the word via its e-newsletter, and city staff visited several businesses in person.
Food vendors were able to request an exemption of up to one year if it would cause them any hardship, such as already purchased back orders of foam containers; however, no such requests were made, city staff reported.
“We only received two phone calls out of 600 postcards,” said Ursula Syrova, recycling program senior office assistant.
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board is driving several bans in many Bay Area communities with mandated reductions to certain pollutants, including trash. Sunnyvale, as well as other cities, is working to reduce the amount of litter coming through storm sewer systems and local waterways by 40 percent by 2014, with the goal of a 100 percent reduction by 2022.
“Litter is kind of like our poster child of pollutants,” said Elaine Marshall, environmental programs manager. “Litter is one thing where you see it on the street and as soon as there’s water or there’s rain you can watch it just go into the storm drain system and out into our waterways. So, we have prioritized and really believe this is the right thing to do, and it reinforces behavior change.”
Marshall added that historically, the city has seen EPS listed as one of the top five most commonly found items in citywide cleanup events.
Mark Bowers, solid waste programs division manager, also attributed the creation of the ban to the Homestead High School Anti-Styrofoam Initiative.
“The kids from Homestead High School really laid the groundwork for this,” Bowers said. “Even before staff started working on this, they came to council a couple of years ago and in the public comment period told the council they were concerned about the issue, and they would like to see expanded polystyrene foam containers banned from the city.
“They presented such a compelling argument that it was really hard for the council to do anything but.”
Now restaurant-goers may even spot a special sticker provided by the initiative stating that the establishment is foam free.
As the ban goes into effect, Bowers said, the city will be focused on compliance, not enforcement.
“If we see a pattern of repeated noncompliance then we’ll go to the first step on the enforcement path, which is a formal letter for the director of the environmental services department,” Bowers said.
The letter spells out what the fines will be for noncompliance, including a $100 fine the first day, $200 fine for the second day and $500 for each day after that.
Residents can report foam foodware use by calling 408.730.7262 or emailing recycling@sunnyvale.ca.gov.
The ban on retail sales of EPS food containers take effect one year later, on April 22, 2015.
For more information about the EPS ban, visit nofoam.insunnyvale.com.
