San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Plastic: Want a utensil, lid or condiment packet? You’re supposed to ask
At a McDonald’s near Union Square this month, clerks handed out plastic utensils for ice cream sundaes and cheesy bacon fries.
Sam TrifToma gratefully accepted, even though he hadn’t requested any. “I needed it to eat the fries,” he said of the fork, which came packaged in a plastic sleeve.
That sounds like typical fastfood service — but in San Francisco, policymakers have a different idea. Under rules that kicked in July 1, restaurants are supposed to stop automatically including throwaway accessories with orders — whether eatin, takeout or delivery.
The ordinance applies to plastic utensils, napkins, straws, cup sleeves and lids, condiment packages and portion cups, chopsticks and stirrers. Diners can still receive those items upon request, and restaurants can offer them, other
than straws, at selfservice areas. (The Union Square McDonald’s had five countertop placards about the ordinance and did abide with most of its provisions, such as only making condiments and cup lids available at selfservice stations.)
“It will make us rethink the singleuse items we’re not even conscious of consuming; all the stuff we get and then throw away right away,” said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento advocacy group. “Just adding the intervention of having people ask if you want utensils gets rid of the lowesthanging form of waste — stuff people don’t even want.”
In the Bay Area, disposable foodware accounts for twothirds of the street litter that washes into the bay and ocean.
So far, compliance isn’t universal.
Burger King on Powell Street still put plastic lids on all drinks and had a jar of plastic straws on its counter in early July. Although it provides ketchup only upon request, clerks handed out heaping handfuls. “I only needed one ketchup — but look what they gave me,” said Sam, a visitor from Paris, gesturing at a heap of plastic packets.
Leilane Arnold, 9, who was eating there with stepmom Anjanette Arnold, said she appreciates the city’s new rules. “I try to save turtles by not getting a straw,” she said.
At the Westfield San Francisco Centre food court, Alexandra Parisottto and Triniti Cabrerizo said they received plasticwrapped plastic cutlery with their Lobster Me orders. “You assume it will come with your order; if it’s not there when you’re ready to eat, it would be frustrating,” Parisotto said. Burger King spokeswoman Dori Alvarez said in an email that its restaurants are franchised. “As this law recently went into effect, the restaurant owner is working to ensure that the restaurant team is trained on the new protocol and that the new regulations are being followed,” she wrote. McDonald’s and Lobster Me did not reply to requests for comment.
City officials understand that compliance is not immediate, even though the ordinance passed a year ago and they sent letters about it to 9,000 restaurants. They’re taking a softtouch approach.
Leaning against the wooden counter at Cafe International, Lorenna Varkonyi, an environmental outreach aide with the city’s Department of the Environment, coached owner Zahra Saleh on complying with San Francisco’s rules.
“You’re doing a fantastic job; you have so many items that are reusable and recyclable,” Varkonyi told Saleh, who’s run the colorful Lower Haight coffee shop for 27 years. “It’s great that you give people food to go in compostable containers, but starting in January 2020, these items have to be BPIcertified,” she added, referring to an upcoming provision of the same rule that involves the Biodegradable Products Institute. Ondemand food apps — which in techsavvy San Francisco are a main way many people get meals — also have varying levels of compliance. “We are coming up with a plan to engage all those folks in fooddelivery services,” said Cara Gurney, senior engagement coordinator for the Department of the Environment.
Postmates added a way to decline cutlery a couple of months ago, and about a quarter of customers have done so, according to Vikrum Aiyer, the company’s vice president of public policy. “We look forward to working with the city and rolling out additional features to drive this trend line even higher,” he said.
Grubhub has for years provided a checkbox to decline plasticware and napkins, spokeswoman Yera Ha said in an email. Bay Area diners were the most likely to forgo the disposables. “We’re evaluating San Francisco’s new policy as we continue refining our product,” Ha said.
Ritual, which lets coworkers join forces on food orders, plans to add a “cutlery default off ” feature by July 15 for its 350 San Francisco restaurants. It has previously offered that as an option, but only about 100 restaurants have participated. Still, threequarters of their diners chose not to request utensils.
“I think this is absolutely the right thing to do,” said Ray Reddy, Ritual CEO and cofounder. “Often people don’t end up using the cutlery; it just gets thrown out.” DoorDash and UberEats declined to comment. Caviar’s parent company Square did not reply to a request for comment.
It’s normal for new measures to phase in over time, Gurney said. Rather than slapping merchants with penalties, her department stresses education and outreach. “We want to give people runway time to adopt these new and sometimes challenging operations and behavioral shifts,” she said.
San Francisco’s new bill, along with one enacted in Berkeley this year, takes the nation’s toughest approaches to food accessory waste, said Lapis from Californians Against Waste.
“What San Francisco has done will be a model for the state,” he said.