One year after Santa Barbara’s City Council got way more than 15 minutes of noisy and unwanted fame for passing an ordinance banning plastic straws and plastic cutlery, the actual ordinance went quietly into effect this week beginning Monday, July 1.
Initial media accounts of the council’s environmentally minded ordinance indicated violators could be fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in the hoosegow. In fact, fines range from $100 to $250 — with no jail time — and will be imposed only on repeat offenders, and then only after numerous outreach efforts have failed, according to City Hall’s straw czar Rene Eyerly. Waste Reduction Outreach teams, Eyerly said, have already notified owners of restaurants, bars, cafés, hotels, caterers, and corner stores that single-use straws of any kind can be made available only to customers who need such devices because of a physical handicap; plastic cutlery can be provided only upon demand.
Plastic straws made from corn or sugarcane are covered by the city’s ban, too. Businesses that use reusable straws are free to provide these to their customers as long as they collect and clean them for reuse. Single-use paper straws can be composted and are allowed.