RELEASE: Los Angeles, Berkeley city leaders discuss waste reduction programs

For Immediate Release:

Friday, November 15, 2024

LOS ANGELES – City leaders from Los Angeles and Berkeley discussed their cities’ programs to reduce single-use plastic waste during CALPIRG’s “Crafting Clean Cities” webinar on Wednesday. During the discussion, representatives from the two California cities described their bans on single-use plastics in restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses.

Single-use plastics, including plastic grocery bags, foodware and polystyrene, produce millions of tons of waste each year. When this breaks down, it turns into smaller pieces known as microplastics, which have been found in even the most extreme environments on Earth and within human bodies. 

“This is an industry that has tremendous power, especially at the state and federal level,” Los Angeles City Council President Emeritus Paul Krekorian said during the webinar. “Now, that’s all the more reason why it’s important that we at the local level continue to act, because as we enact more and more local ordinances on these things, it creates a momentum that impacts the state legislature and also creates an incentive for industry to work with the advocacy community to develop statewide solutions.”

Council President Emeritus Krekorian was joined by LA Sanitation & Environment Environmental Supervisor Marjorie Phan in showcasing the actions that the City of Los Angeles has taken to reduce plastic waste. Some city ordinances include an expanded ban on single-use carryout bags, requiring city facilities and events to produce zero waste and an ordinance requiring restaurants to only provide single-use plastic foodware upon request. 

“We’re in the process of developing behavior change in an outreach and education campaign to raise awareness around the ordinance and their requirements to target the consumer,” Berkeley Zero Waste Commission Secretary Julia Heath said during the webinar. “It’s not just relying on the business to be in compliance with an ordinance and that it really is targeting a behavior and a cultural shift.”

The City of Berkeley has targeted plastic waste in the restaurant industry to limit the use of disposable foodware. Secretary Heath described the challenges of combatting low compliance and the benefits of partnering with other local agencies and outside companies to incentivize the use of reusable foodware in dine-in and takeout restaurants. Similar to Los Angeles, Berkeley is emphasizing a change in consumer culture away from disposable objects made of plastic. 

“We are continuing to push for more ambitious action to reduce plastic waste at every level of government,” CALPIRG Legislative Advocate Fiona Hines said during the webinar. “We know that cities often pioneer transformative efforts, modeling that change is possible. By sharing ideas and learnings from efforts in Los Angeles and Berkeley, we know that we can spread change to even more cities in California.”