CITY TO CRAFT SINGLEUSE PLASTICS BAN

Council seeks to ban disposable food containers next year

Arcata is planning on taking a more aggressive stance toward banning single-use beverage containers in the city.

The Arcata City Council at a special meeting on Tuesday gave staff direction to entirely ban single-use plastic bottles for all beverages at city facilities and events and begin enforcing its ban on single-use disposable food containers at food establishments starting next year.

“I think that’s a reasonable time for people, for businesses to find alternatives,” said Arcata Mayor Michael Winkler.

The council gave staff direction to ban all single-use plastic beverage containers at city facilities and events, including sporting

events, instead of just water, as was recommended by city staff. Single-use aluminum and glass containers would still be allowed by the ordinance.

Councilwoman Sofia Pereira pointed out that bottled water would be allowed in an emergency situation.

The ban on single-use disposable food containers would apply to all food establishments in the city, such as grocery stores, food trucks and restaurants, which would need to switch to compostable single-use disposable containers.

The council gave direction to define compostable materials as those that don’t contain fluorinated chemicals, which have been shown to be bad for public health.

The council gave direction to allow food vendors and providers to implement some combination of a fee or discount. Council

directed staff to allow waivers for businesses who would

have to pay 200% more for a comparable compostable container.

Councilman Brett Watson warned providing waivers for people whose costs would be doubled or tripled

was arbitrary since there’s a big difference between someone whose costs go from 5 cents to 15 cents versus someone whose costs go from $5 to $15.

Carl Pellatz, of the Humboldt Crabs baseball board, said the Crabs would end up having to pay triple the cost for a compostable version of the beer cups they currently

use and that would be financially unsustainable.

Enforcement fees would be determined at the next budget session or could be done sooner, said Arcata City Manager Karen Diemer.

Maggie Gainer, of the Humboldt Zero Waste board, said a lot of dining establishments are already moving in the direction of sustainability and the council should stick with what it laid out.

“This is pretty mild as far as what it is we should be doing,” said Arcata resident Kelsey Reedy. “But it’s a good step.”

SONIA WARAICH — THE TIMES-STANDARD Maggie Gainer, vice president of Zero Waste Humboldt’s board of directors, speaks in favor of taking a more aggressive approach to banning single use plastics at a special Arcata City Council meeting on Tuesday night. The council opted to take a more aggressive approach rather than an incremental one as suggested by staff.

TIMES-STANDARD FILE The Arcata City Council directed staff to work on banning single-use plastic bottles from city events and facilities.