Sometimes you scratch your head and ask yourself: What were they thinking?
In October of 2021 the state assembly approved, and the governor signed Assembly Bill 1276, to regulate the use of “Single-use food ware accessories and standard condiments.”
Lompoc staff explains it this way, it is “a new law that intends to reduce the generation and disposal of single-use food ware accessories and condiments in certain food facilities.”
School cafeterias, a huge generator of this type of waste, are exempted in the city policy, even though their trash goes to our landfill. How’s that for a serious effort at reducing waste?
The state assembly’s goal was to reduce solid waste, and of course once again interfere with businesses, the way people eat their food, and generally make pests of themselves.
The state required that on or before June 1, 2022, a city, county, or city and county shall authorize an enforcement agency to enforce the new rules. In Lompoc the City Solid Waste Division will administer this program.
The new rules require prepared-food businesses to change the way they distribute so-called “single use” items such as “chopsticks, forks, knives, spoons, and sporks; napkins, straws, stirrers, splash sticks, cocktail sticks; relishes, spices, sauces, confections, or seasonings that require no additional preparation and that are usually used on a food item after preparation, including ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, soy sauce, hot sauce, salsa, salt, pepper, sugar, and sugar substitutes.”
The staff concluded that this new rule may also help businesses; they said: “Restaurants are also spending large amounts of money on these items, when reusable alternatives are common and practical.”
Maybe they are, but that’s a business decision on the business owners’ part and not any business of the government. And, just what are the “reusable alternatives”?
Let’s examine this rule and its impact on the environment a little closer. Will it really help reduce waste or the cost to business?
Each of the items described in this rule are very small, some are biodegradable, but most aren’t. I am sure everyone reading this has had an opportunity to use one or more of these items. Did you notice that it would take tens of thousands of these items to fill one cubic foot of space?
This rule is like one the state passed concerning single-use plastic bags. You may have noticed those bags are still in use, the only real difference is you pay for a bag each time you go to the grocery store. Of course, you can do what I and many others do and just reuse the bags.
As far as the cost to businesses, you may have noticed new menus at almost every local restaurant.
One local restaurant owner told me he was raising prices because one of the main items used in his business had increased $10,000 for the same one-month quantity this year; and raising the minimum wage had also increased his labor costs. He was passing the price to produce the food along to the purchaser.
There is an important caveat to this new rule; you can request that you get a straw or any of the other items on the list from the food provider. And, at least in Lompoc, “Enforcement will be conducted via a complaint portal, where individuals can submit a complaint of a business being out of compliance.”
I am sure that someone who is overly concerned about this issue will file a complaint someday, but I suspect most folks will simply ignore a “rule” that has very little benefit to the consumer and a minuscule impact on the environment or capacity of the landfill.
There is an election coming up in November, keep in mind that if you keep sending politicians to Sacramento who keep coming up with these ideas, you will pay for them to be implemented.
You have the power to change this trend with your vote; pick someone with more common sense.
— Ron Fink, a Lompoc resident since 1975, is retired from the aerospace industry. He has been following Lompoc politics since 1992, and after serving for 23 years appointed to various Lompoc commissions, retired from public service. The opinions expressed are his own.
