The La Mesa City Council voted on Feb. 13 in favor of drafting an ordinance to reduce single-use plastics in the city.

Following in the footsteps of other cities that have implemented ordinances in the county like Oceanside and Carlsbad, La Mesa approved the creation of an ad hoc committee to determine the next steps in addressing single-use plastics, according to Council members Patricia Dillard and Jack Shu.

“We just want to try to help keep our city healthy and well by making those mental changes and understanding it’s for the health and benefit of our community,” Dillard said. “This is not to try to force anyone to do anything but to just to think twice about plastics because they’re not biodegradable, and they are destroying our environment.”

A second proposal brought forward by Dillard and Shu regarding the sale of plastic water bottles at city-sponsored events did not pass.

The two council members began discussions last year regarding the ordinance with the environmental advocacy organizations OCEANA and the Surfrider Foundation.

“This is a big win for San Diego County, and we look forward to continuing to support the council members in getting this ordinance over the finish line,” Melissa Morris, OCEANA’s Southern California field representative, said via email.

Janis Jones, co-lead of the Rise Above Plastics program at the Surfrider Foundation, said this ordinance in La Mesa is important. The majority of cities who have passed ordinances this far are coastal which could make La Mesa a pivotal place.

“Sometimes inland communities have a hard time seeing their connection because so much of plastic pollution awareness has been around the ocean environment, and so everyone needs to understand that what ends up in the ground in La Mesa, or Julian or Borrego Springs has the potential of ending up in the ocean,” Jones said. “There’s nothing that stops it from traveling from the storm drains to the ocean.”

According to Jones, eight other cities have adopted ordinances: San Marcos, Vista, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar and Imperial Beach. Jones said Coronado and Chula Vista are also in the process of considering ordinances currently. These ordinances aim to limit the use of items such as Styrofoam to-go containers, plastic utensils, plastic bags, etc.

A recent study published in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science & Technology scientific journal (https://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag) estimated that annual microplastics consumption ranges from 39000 to 52000 particles.

Dillard said that already the city has been orchestrating efforts to set the example of reducing single-use plastics at events, even though the second proposal failed. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Collier Park earlier this month, Dillard said a local water company was present with a cooler and spout that could disperse the water instead of plastic bottles.

Some local business owners expressed concerns at the council meeting about how this ordinance could impact businesses, especially at large events like the Oktoberfest. However, Shu and Dillard said they are open to hearing concerns as they begin to consider the plan for drafting the ordinance.

“We will welcome and invite any business owners who have concerns to let us know what their concerns are,” Shu said. “I presume that some of those concerns are going to be the difficulty changing some containers. What was brought up for example was, what about salsa containers? As the business community brings up these items, we can certainly take a look at it and see how we can accommodate that.”

Additionally, Shu said he hopes to have opportunities to hear the experiences of vendors who operate in cities that have already implemented ordinances.

“We’re not the first ones out with these kinds of ordinances, so we can find other vendors that are dealing with these ordinances and learn from them [about] how they’ve made the conversion, how they deal with making their products more friendly to the environment,” Shu commented.

Jones said in her work with cities and ordinances it’s important to understand each one is not the same but can be helpful in drafting.

“Each one is different because each one is unique to the community,” Jones said. “Each community has different needs, different desires [and] different populations. We aren’t trying to have every city have to do the same thing. Each is very adaptable.”

Regarding the timeline of implementation, Shu said that, typically, when the city council acts on moving forward on a draft ordinance, it takes about three months before it comes back to the council. Additionally, if the drafted ordinance is passed, Shu said it’s intended that the ordinance wouldn’t be in effect until a full 12 months afterward.

“Nothing is going to be coming through very quickly, which gives time for people who do have concerns to pick it over and look into it a bit more,” Shu remarked. “We want it to work well. In the end, we’ll find that it’s all achievable. We’re not trying to do something that’s impossible.”

Likewise, Dillard expressed hopes about the next steps.

“This is the beginning of the ordinance,” Dillard said. “We feel confident that we’ll be able to build on it.”

As a resident and/or business owner in La Mesa, are you in favor of an ordinance to reduce single-use plastics in the city?

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