Community members advocated for the council to ban single-use plastic straws at the City Council meeting Wednesday night and they may get more than they asked for.

Councilman Paul Pitino, in response to the public comments concerning plastic pollution said, ” I’d like to see the single-use straw banned … maybe we can do a complete ban rather than an item by item ban.”

Such a ban would include all single-use items including “lids for cups, forks, the whole thing,” Pitino said.

A “zero waste task force” is currently being assembled which Pitino hopes to utilize in crafting the ban. The task force will “develop strategies for implementation of the City’s Zero Waste Action Plan and engage the public around the goal of Zero Waste,” according to the city’s website. City Manager Karen Diemer said applications for the task force are still being accepted, and hopes that interviews will be conducted by the next council meeting.

Madison Peters, the coastal programs coordinator at the North Coast Environmental Center, said her work has given her a first hand view of what “single-use addiction” looks like. Peters said during the coastal clean ups, volunteers pick up “discarded wrappers, plastic lids with straws stuck in them, polystyrene and other trash.” Peters carries reusable utensils with her and encourages others to do the same. “We need to deal with this on a large scale,” Peters said,”a city ordinance is a good place to begin to break the cycle.”

Councilman Brett Watson said of the ban, “I support it 100 percent.” Watson said there is a need to reduce the amount of waste and recycling produced, especially in light of the upcoming recycling processing fee. While some may contend a ban on single-use items will cost local businesses more, Watson said studies have proven over time this is not necessarily the case.

“We used to be ahead on this kind of stuff,” he added.

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