The last San Luis Obispo City Council had instructed staffers to come back with some info leading to an ordinance prepared to reduce the use of disposable plastic bottles in the City in a 4-1 vote nearly a year ago.
On Jan. 3 they held a study session to address the matter. A lot happened last year and staff ended up needing to shuffle some more pressing matters and asking for a little more guidance in the intervening months.
However, in their third meeting since having three new members elected to the posts, the Council opted, “to move forward with regulations for the sale and distribution of all single-use plastic bottles on city property and at permitted special events,” as described in a press statement from the City Assistant Manager Derrick Johnson.
He later added that community outreach would dictate the specifics of what they come up with, but the basic instructions from the Council – after hearing the staff research on various larger municipalities – was to look into banning the sale of single use plastic bottles on City streets, during municipal events, and in parks.
“That means no use of our funds to buy them,” Johnson said, “And vendors on City property during events won’t be able to sell them. You can still go into a store. You could still go to Costco and buy a 24-pack of bottles, that’s not our business.”
The direction given to staff to develop language that restricts the use of city funds to purchase plastic water and soda bottles both, as well as to increase the number of water bottle filling stations available came after study found that soda and juice consumption increased in places where language only applied to water bottle sales.
With that in mind, Johnson said, they’re loosely modeling work on San Francisco’s bottle ban and the ordinance likely won’t be ready till Summer 2017. Among the changes required would be amendments to the city’s building codes mandating bottle filling stations in buildings where drinking fountains are already necessitated.
Those are the type of requirements that will be addressed in planned public outreach meetings in the months to come.
Doubtless both the bottled water industry, represented locally by the Crystal Springs Water bottled water supplier, as well as local developers will want to weigh in.
According to estimates obtained by the city from CalRecycle. more than 13 million bottles were purchased by the local public in fiscal year 2015-16 and only 41 percent were recycled.
When, and if, the regulations do go into effect, they’ll join the list of other SLO bans that have changed the way citizens live, from public smoking (of any kind) to plastic bags at stores, Styrofoam containers at restaurants or being able to rest in a car at night.
The case against the bottle:
Energy consumption – the production of single use bottles causes an enormous amount of waste water in and of it’s self at the manufacturing plant. In addition to being made from petrochemicals, materials are used in production as well as burned to run machinery and transport materials.
Harmful chemicals – Many single use bottles leach bisphenol-A (BPA) into the water, soda too. The effect persists and worsens over time, which is why they’re single use, despite their durability tempting users to refill. BPA has effects on the endocrine system and mimics hormones inside the human body, as well as being a source of pollution damaging other organisms in the wild.
Lack of recycling capacity – Yes, it’s true that the bottles can be recycled, but, back to the energy and transportation issue. Also, most aren’t even in the local estimate, less than half sold were recovered. As well, at events and other functions that the City of SLO is looking into, adequate recycling receptacles are not always available. Passers-by may not use them either, preferring the convenience of the nearest trashcan, or simple litter.
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