Pasadena City Hall (Photo – Coloradoblvd.net)
Positive changes are happening for the environment.
By Cheryl Auger
1- Two weeks ago the L.A. County Board of Supervisors passed a new ordinance for all of L.A. County that focuses on reducing waste from take-out meals. Known as “Accessories Upon Request”, “Cut Out Cutlery” and “Skip The Stuff”, this legislation is designed to prevent delivery of cutlery, napkins, condiments, straws etc. with take-out unless it is requested, and to have food delivery services change their applications to default to accessories only upon request. Habits of Waste, a new environmental group, demonstrated that there is a substantial savings to restaurants from this one simple change. This also leads to less plastic in the landfill by reducing the 40+ billion pieces of single-use plastic cutlery that are disposed of each year across the globe. Last year they worked with Postmates and UberEats to change their applications to make single-use plastic cutlery available by request only. Similarly, Pasadena recently asked staff to draft “Accessories Upon Request” legislation. We hope that this will be presented on February 25 at the Municipal Services Committee Meeting.
2- Also this week, the Pasadena Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC) reported on SB 1383, The Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Act, which focuses on reducing organic material going to the landfill to reduce methane emissions. The EAC discussed many points, including the excessive volume of hauling, the inability to separate food waste, and not being able to meet the SB 1383 standard. Right now, the average amount of organic waste is 10 pounds per person per day. We can expect an increase in our waste fees if we can’t reduce our waste. Neither single families nor multi-families are paying the true cost of their waste.
3- An amazing note to add, 301 Organics diverted 8 tons of organic waste at the Rose Bowl with just 16 families composting through this program. This shows we have local options.
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