Milpitas restaurants, delis, coffee shops and grocery stores will need to find alternatives for serving food other than expanded polystyrene foam food ware before July 1, 2018, when a citywide ban — approved with a second reading on Aug. 15 — takes effect.

Not satisfied with simply banning the use of foam food containers in restaurants here, the council asked city staff to return after the first reading of the new policy in May with an expanded policy to include all businesses where residents can buy food.

In May, the council also approved a city policy that would prevent the use of foam food containers at all city facilities, city-managed concessions, city-sponsored events and for any food vendors doing business with the city. The policy does not apply to foam containers used at public parks on a non-rental basis by members of the public.

EPS is a petroleum-based, lightweight plastic material commonly used in a molded foam form for takeout food, Leslie Stobbe, a public information specialist in the city’s engineering department, told the council in May. One of its ingredients — styrene — has been identified as a cancer-causing chemical. It also causes environmental problems because it is hard to recycle once used and it breaks down into smaller pieces in the environment, which makes it difficult to clean up.

Those pieces can also be mistaken for food and eaten by birds and marine wildlife, Stobbe told the council.

On Aug. 15, Stobbe returned to the council with the results of a survey in which 76 percent of 367 food establishments responded with their opinions on the ordinance. According to the data shared by Stobbe, 52 percent of respondents use foam food ware while 48 percent of respondents do not.

Of the 52 percent who still use foam food ware 58 percent said they thought the ordinance would have a positive impact on the environment, while 92 percent of respondents said they would be financially impacted by the foam ban, Stobbe said.

Milpitas businesses can apply for exemptions, that would give them three months to finish their foam inventory, she added. In order to qualify for an exemption, foam ware must have been purchased and an exception application submitted to the city by Dec. 31 of this year, Stobbe said.

The policy and ordinance proposed to the council comes from the city’s Recycling & Source Reduction Advisory Commission as part of long-term trash load reduction plan required by the Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit, Stobbe said. That permit — meant to curb solid waste into local waterways — is routinely submitted to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board for review.

At a 2014 meeting, the council authorized city staff to begin implementation of a long-term trash reduction plan, which included the city’s existing plastic bag ban implemented the same year. The city has a goal of reducing trash in creeks by 70 percent by July 1, 2017, 80 percent by July 1, 2019 and no visual impact by July 1, 2022.

Stobbe said the city met its 70 percent trash reduction goal by passing a plastic bag ban in 2016 and installing 94 small capture devices in catch basins that lead into storm drains.

To meet the 2019 goal, Stobbe said Milpitas aimed to reduce the amount of trash produced in the city, increase creek cleanups and install additional trash capture devices to keep garbage out of Milpitas waterways. In the 2017-18 fiscal year, 129 devices are expected to be installed, with another 90 in the 2019-20 fiscal year, Stobbe said.

The foam ban will cost the city approximately $23,600, which is allocated in the engineering department’s 2017-18 budget, for outreach to food establishments and to conduct additional creek cleanups.