The City Council Tuesday certified the environmental impact report for a program officials say will serve as a road map for reducing single-use plastics in Los Angeles.
The council voted 10-0 to certify the report as part of the city’s Comprehensive Plastics Reduction Program, which outlines several initiatives the city will consider implementing, including reusable foodware for dine-in services, compostable single-use foodware for take-out, a ban on single-use printer cartridges, and investment in hydration stations across city facilities, events and parks.
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who chair’s the council’s Energy and Environment Committee, noted that the EIR was years in the making, and described plastics pollution as a global crisis.
“We feel its effect right here in Los Angeles from plastics in our oceans and landfills to microplastics in our water supply, and even in our bodies,” Yaroslavsky said prior to the vote. “Researchers are finding microplastics in our blood, in placentas and even in breast milk. It’s horrifying.”
Any future policies will have an impact on businesses, in particular on smaller restaurants and street vendors, according to the councilwoman, but she said city officials would work with stakeholders to ensure fairness and feasibility.
Councilman Paul Krekorian, who worked on the program alongside his former colleagues Mitch O’Farrell and Paul Koretz among other past council members, pulled out a credit card to highlight the impacts of plastic.
“This is how much the average American consumes into their body every week,” Krekorian said. “A programmatic EIR like this gives us a road map — gives all of you a road map — of the policies you can continue to develop.”
“The only solution is eliminating or significantly reducing single-use plastics in the first place,” he added.
Following Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Krekorian, Yaroslavsky and Councilman Bob Blumenfield held a news conference to further discuss the goals of the program.
Krekorian said he hopes the city — and the United States — will catch up with what’s being done in the United Kingdom, where single-use plastics cutlery, straws, plates and styrofoam containers are banned.
From the recommendations in the EIR, city officials will consider initiatives that can be applied as quickly as possible while ramping up outreach with business owners and street vendors for policies that will require a more nuanced approach.
“You’ll start to see a series of ordinance recommendations coming through for development,” Yaroslavsky said.
The council members also touched upon the enforcement aspect of such policies, citing their ban on free plastic bags in grocery stores in 2013, and similar state legislation in 2014.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to close a legal loophole to address the increase of plastic bag waste. Stores offered for-purchase “reusable” bags, which environmental groups said were mostly not recycled, though companies argued they could be reused. The new law targeting checkout bags will take effect Jan. 1, 2026.
An L.A. sanitation representative explained that when the city implemented its ban on plastic bags, which also covered home goods and other stores, there was a public education component — something they hope to further continue with any future plastics reduction program.
Blumenfield said the program is more than just about bans. It’s intended to create incentives and disincentives, and policy mechanisms that don’t necessarily require enforcement.
“… We do this work not just to enact specific policies, it’s to create cultural change,” Krekorian added.