LA's Straw Ban Takes Effect

LOS ANGELES, CA — A new law banning all restaurants from automatically giving customers plastic straws went into effect Monday in the city of Los Angeles.

The start of the law, intended to coincide with Earth Day, affects restaurants with 26 employees or more and will impact all restaurants by Oct. 1.

Councilman Mitch O'Farrell -- one of the proposal's backers -- said in March that he wants Los Angeles to go further than state legislation signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that bans full-service restaurants from automatically giving customers plastic straws.

"The new city law picks up where the state law stops," O'Farrell said. "As a coastal city and state, we owe it to our environment to do everything in our power to ensure we reduce single-use plastic waste. This could not have been accomplished without collaboration with our city departments, our environmental advocates, and our business community, many of whom are already taking steps to find alternatives to plastic straws."

The council in December also directed the Bureau of Sanitation to report back regarding the feasibility of phasing out single-use plastic straws by 2021, and to work with the Department of Disability on methods and approaches to mitigate impacts to the disabled community associated with the phase-out.

"I am proud to be part of the cutting-edge work the city of Los Angeles is doing to fight plastic pollution in the L.A. River and our ocean," said Cecilia Cabello, commissioner for the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. "We are excited to join other progressive communities around the country that are also saying `no' to plastic straws."

The motion that led to the straws-on-request ordinance cited a Los Angeles Times editorial which stated that Americans use -- and almost immediately discard -- up to a half-billion plastic beverage straws each day.

City News Service