Edhat Staff
(stock photo)
The Santa Barbara City Council approved new ordinances on Tuesday to ban styrofoam, plastic straws, stirrers, and cutlery within city limits.
Council members voted 7-0 to ban plastic straws, and a 6-1 vote to ban food service expanded polystyrene. The ordinance is scheduled to begin on January 1, 2019.
The plastic straw ordinance will prohibit the sale or distribution of plastic beverage straws. It also makes it unlawful for any beverage/food provider to provide plastic cutlery or plastic stirrers to any person being served or ordering on their premises, unless the beverage/food provider first asks that person whether they want to receive plastic cutlery or stirrers.
The polystyrene ban prohibits the sale of disposable styrofoam food containers and instead requires biodegradable, compostable, or recyclable disposable food containers.
The official plastic straw ordinance can be found here and the styrofoam ordinance found here.
Santa Barbara now joins 120 other California cities that are reducing these single-use plastic use items that studies have found often end up on beaches and in the ocean, harming marine life and ecosystems. Santa Barbara also joins Carpinteria and more than 20 other California cities who have officially banned retail sales of these products.
Past Articles
- June 18, 2018: City of Santa Barbara Considers Banning Sytrofoam
- February 17, 2018 Op-Ed: Ban Plastic Straws from Santa Barbara
the city leaders want to do this rather than clean up downtown, get more retail in, help the homeless, get more affordable housing for residents, fix streets and these stupid brick crosswalks…but hey, let’s screw the retailers even more! yeah!
we’ll see how this works when they go to get a smoothie, or any drink and their eco straws melt…here is a quote from Jason Dominguez…that little turd needs to be removed from office.
Councilman Jason Dominguez disagreed.
“Unfortunately, common sense is just not common,” he said. “We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.”
he’s all for telling everyone what they should do…
Who in Santa Barbara throws their straw in the ocean? How does the straw I throw in the trash end up in the ocean?
Zero hawk you hit the nail right on the head!
Absolutely right OOPS!
You’d be surprised how many straws I and people i know have picked up off our beaches
“Let the market forces solve it…..” has never worked. Market forces gave us polluted environments and burning lakes. Market forces brought us the Casmalia Superfund Site. Market forces fought the ban on plastic bags. Unfortunately it takes local governments who can tackle small issues that won’t kill profit margins to bring about changes like this. Really, if you can’t live without a straw, how about buying a fancy metal one and bringing it with you? Personally, I avoid straws and chopsticks and foam containers and single use water bottles as much as possible, and my life is still tolerable.
really what era? I was born in 1970. So, if it happened before then, it clearly didn’t work out and was ceased. I’ve used plastic straws since 1970….
yeah i was wondering the same thing….and I spend 3 out of 7 days at the beaches here with my kid. I’ve never seen a plastic straw in the water or sand or even in mission creek…
whoa….again this happened….multiple replies when i hit the button once. Moderators please remove the duplicate posts, thanks! 🙂
Oh, thank god. Cause, you know straws, are what’s destroying the very fabric of this universe.
I’m including a link on this story: https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/07/17/plastic-straw-myths That suggests this straw story has dubious roots. It suggests that a kid’s science project was the initiation point and that the discarded straw count is greatly inflated. Do not think that I advocate plastic pollution. I take an extra bag with me on my hikes to pack out what other people discarded because I’m a strong advocate of leave no trace, especially other’s people’s “traces”. How are people in wheel chairs going to sip their drinks?
I agree – it is a small step, but it is in the right direction.
Here’s a better link on the topic: http://www.climatedepot.com/2018/07/18/stossel-false-claim-of-500-million-straws-used-daily-came-from-a-10-year-olds-elementary-school-project-but-media-uncritically-repeats/ Believe, I don’t like plastic pollution, I detest it.
Climate Depot is a big carbon propaganda site funded by the Koch brothers.
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http://polluterwatch.org/Committe-for-a-Constructive-Tomorrow-CFACT
Thanks for the info. In this case they are only relaying the straw information from another source and not producing the content of the story. In general I use that site for its links to stories, but it’s low on my list. Take in all sides.
Oh give us a break. Not providing straws is not going to sink a business. If it does, they weren’t long for this town anyway. Here’s an idea: take your own glass bottles and/or coffee mugs with you. Stop with ALL the throw-aways!
Great.
Just great.
Back to using rolled up hundees I guess.
Why are we okay with keeping a sea turtle from gagging on a plastic spoon while at the same time Santa Barbara harvests thousands of urchins so sushi eaters can chow down on uni. Let’s not overlook the hundred of lobster bugs and Hope Ranch oysters we dig so much thank you. But gotta keep Sammy the Sea Turtle from strangling on a straw. I’ll bet if we ate turtle, straws would still be cool.
I hope 805 Boba finds a solution, Boba is hard to drink without straws, and I’ve yet to see compostable or paper boba straws.
why does the city have to get involved and be a nanny? Let the market forces solve the issue – much more effective. As an example
Marriott hotels just released a statement that they will cease plastic straws around the world – what a great corporate “green move” – it didn’t need a “ban” to make this decision!
What about banning plastic sporks? Shouldn’t city council get right on that? So much important work to do, so little time.
Reusable tempered glass and stainless steel 10mm diameter straws of various length are available on the internet. They can be ordered with skinny brushes to clean them with. Good for smoothie clean up. I gave a bunch last month for family members who are new college grads.
I drank a lot of nice, thick milkshakes in my teen years. There was no such thing as plastic straws. Life will go on without them
single use plastic straws are needed by many disabled people who can’t use paper or reusable straws because they are choking hazards (people who bite down on straws could choke on paper straws) and some with compromised immune systems can’t risk the reusable ones.
Sadly, its just PR and there’s much more plastic waste generated by the fishing and agricultural industries that goes into the ocean.
Sounds like the earth will stop spinning if there are no plastic straws. Mentioning other “more important” things is comparing apples to oranges. The paper straws I saw that came from the 99 cent store (up north) were really sturdy, not like old time ones I remember.
At least everybody is still bringing their own bag toTrader Joe’s, so they can fill it full of plastic containers (some with styrofoam bases).
This is good for the environment, so good…..But people should be able to ask for one if they want or need one. I get it. A ban on straws is silly while the city lets bigger issues spin out of control.
I’m good with banning single-use plastic and styrafoam products as long as there are viable alternatives. My issue is; how are we to consume thick milk shakes? Paper straws just don’t get it. I think we need a Commission to study this serious issue and report back to the City Council.
Geez–the ordinance specifically exempts use of such straws by folks who need them for disability accommodation. Straws are absurd in almost every use otherwise. We don’t need straws in a glass of water nor with a soft drink any more than we need them with a glass of wine or beer.
This has to be tongue in cheek? A straw man argument?
Yes, those old and silly arguments are the stock dishonest rhetoric of the right wing. Fortunately, the population of commenters here is not representative of Santa Barbara’s voters.
Shasta Guy, John Stossel is a doctrinaire libertarian propagandist. “500 million straws used daily” is a strawman … that’s not the basis for soundly banning the use of plastic straws.
Ah, yes. The old “Shouldn’t we be doing other, more important things?” argument. And the even sillier “I have never seen plastic straws on the beach, therefore they can’t be a problem” anecdotal nonsense. As HORSEGIRL stated, there are plenty of plastic straws to be found on our beaches. I pick them up every time I see them, at the beach and in our parks. Wait until we have a good rain and then go to the beaches and clean up some trash. Guaranteed you will see plastic everything, including plenty of polystyrene (styrofoam) and plastic straws. And—-oh, yes. How *do* these straws and styrofoam end up on our beaches? They blow there from Sterns Wharf and SBCC and picnickers. People toss trash at the parks and the stuff ends up in the storm drains and creeks and washes down to the sea. Boaters “lose” plastic items out on the ocean and people let their trash blow around on the beaches. Ever go to Oak Park or Shoreline Park during and after the weekend? Check out the amount of plastic left behind at the picnic/barbecue areas. Gulls dig through overflowing trash bins for food and scatter trash. That’s how that crap ends up in our ocean. Thank you City Council for taking this grand step in the right direction.
This is a good first move. If companies won’t be responsible and begin using biodegradable products then laws will be needed. We are TRASHING our earth. It’s happening at a rate we might not be able to stop. We are in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction and republicans are now attacking the Endangered Species Act. DISPICABLE. HOW can they justify it? Slime, all of them.