Visitors to Cambridge city hall will soon be hard-pressed to find plastic straws, disposable plastic cups, plastic cutlery or Styrofoam containers -- council stepped up Tuesday to ban single-use plastics in the building.

The motion put forward by Coun. Pam Wolf supports the federal government’s review of single use plastics, their impacts and possible alternatives.

In presenting her motion, Wolf pointed out the Cambridge was the first Canadian city to have a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) city hall and implemented a policy to make all new city facilities Gold LEED standard buildings.

Cambridge was also among the first to introduce an anti-idling bylaw in front of city hall and schools, and banned plastic single-use water bottles at city hall eight years ago.

Calling it “one small step,” Wolf pointed out just 11 per cent of one-use plastic products are recycled, while the rest end up in landfills.

“People are ready to make the move now,” she said.

“They are buying stainless steel straws and Cambridge is the home of Green Circle dining ware, which is the only manufacturer of paper straws in Canada, so it’s nice for us to support local companies.”

Coun. Frank Monteiro supported the motion, but suggested more work needs to be done in policing plastic water bottles around city hall.

“If we are going to introduce this it has to be strictly enforced,” he said. “We’re going to pass this bylaw, but let’s really enforce it.”

Coun. Jan Liggett gave kudos to Wolf for introducing the motion, but like Monteiro said more work needs to be done regarding plastic water bottles.