In my volunteer job as the Rise Above Plastics program lead for the San Francisco Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, I work to reduce the usage of single-use plastics in San Francisco.

Currently, I work with a coalition of other non-profits to help City Hall draft, support, and pass an ordinance aimed at reducing plastic waste from restaurants in San Francisco. Earlier this year in July, Supervisor Aaron Peskin announced the SF Reuse Ordinance at a Surfrider beach cleanup and introduced it at the following Board of Supervisor’s meeting a few days later.

So, what is in the ordinance?

Here are the main points. Business are required to:

• Charge 25 cents for a disposable to-go cup
• Charge 25 cents for a disposable to-go container
• Have reusable plates, cups, utensils, and other food service ware items for onsite dining

Some additional points include:

• Requiring customers to opt-into additional items when ordering food online
• Requiring restaurants to have full-sized bottles of condiments instead of individual plastic packets (This was my idea!)

These requirements are a great step in reducing plastic waste! They reduce unnecessary waste, elevate the customer’s dining experience and oftentimes save restaurants money!

Charging 25 cents for a disposable to-go cup

I haven’t used a disposable to-go cup in a few years. I bring my reusable coffee cup every time. I keep a glass jar in my car, just in case I forget my reusable coffee cup. But if for some reason I’m caught without both my reusable cup and my jar, I will not get coffee.

By facing a small consequence for forgetting my reusable cup, that memory of missing out on coffee makes me remember the next time. The same thing with reusable grocery bags. If you force yourself to walk back to your car even if you already have a cart of groceries, chances are you won’t forget the next time.

By charging 25 cents for a to-go cup it provides a little incentive or nudge for people in the right direction. If you grab a cup of coffee every day on your way to work, hopefully, that extra $1.25 per week would incentive you to bring your own coffee cup.

A 25-cent charge for a to-go cup is reasonable since there is an easy option to avoid the charge–bring your own cup!

Even if you forget to bring your own cup, there are options popping up that will still allow you to avoid the charge. Several pilot programs are running in Berkeley where you can check out a reusable coffee cup. A Colorado-based company called Vessel Works allows you to borrow a reusable cup! It’s quick and easy. You download their app, scan the QR code on the cup, and grab your coffee. When you’re finished, drop the cup back off at a participating collection center. Vessel washes and restocks the cups back at the restaurant. There’s no charge to the customer unless they lose the coffee cup.

Charging 25 cents for a disposable to-go container

The to-go container charge will not start for at least a year after the ordinance passes to give restaurants an opportunity to provide a reusable option. Now, carrying a to-go cup is one thing, but we can’t expect everyone to bring their own to-go container.

This is why I love companies like Dispatch Goods. Dispatch is similar to Vessel but for to-go containers! They are currently running a pilot program at the Yelp! headquarters where users grab to-go containers filled with food and return them to collection bins around the Yelp! building when finished.

Another great example is Canteen by Dig Inn. Dig Inn is a New York City based chain and they recently started a program for reusable to-go bowls.

We need more innovation in the to-go container space, so the concept of reusable to-go containers can catch on and become mainstream. I want to be able to have a reusable container for take-out wherever I decide to eat. Don’t you?

Reusables for onsite dining

If you’re choosing to sit down and eat, why does there need to be a disposable plastic fork and cup?

Case studies have shown that even if a restaurant had to purchase a dishwasher and hire a person to wash dishes, they still saved money in the long run. This makes sense since you’re no longer purchasing a consumable item. By investing in reusables, restaurants stop continually spending money on the same item.

Ultimately, restaurants that have switched to reusables stopped throwing their money in the trash by no longer providing disposable items.

Also, eating on real plates and using a real fork elevates the dining experience. Nothing cheapens a meal like disposable cutlery.

Opting into utensils when ordering online

How many times have you gotten food to-go, brought it home, and there’s a whole bag full of stuff you don’t need. Forks, way too many sauce packets, and who knows what else. It all gets pushed into the junk drawer where it stays until we watch an episode of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and start ridding our house of things that don’t “spark joy”.

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t get all the extra stuff? I mean, you have forks at home already. So, having a check box for items you do need when ordering online or through a to-go app is an easy way to prevent waste.

I’m not suggesting we take everything away, but I am suggesting that we get only what we ask for.

Full-sized condiments

I was recently eating at a Ramen restaurant near our house. We had ordered pot stickers and they gave us a packet of sweet and sour sauce. It seemed so out of place. Everything else was reusable and the plastic packet of sweet and sour sauce seemed to cheapen our meal a bit. Giving us a full bottle of sauce or even a small reusable dish with a small serving of the sauce would have made more sense.

Similarly, there’s no reason restaurants can’t have a full bottle of ketchup or a ketchup dispenser instead of individual ketchup packets for customers who choose to eat in their restaurant.

All the same condiments without all the extra plastic packaging.

California leading the way

In 2007, San Francisco was the first city to ban single-use plastic bags. Afterwards over a hundred cities in California followed San Francisco’s lead until 2016 when a state-wide plastic bag ban was passed.

California leads the world in environmental leadership and San Francisco leads California.

My hope is that we will start seeing similar ordinances across California and eventually pass better state-wide laws to prevent the usage of single-use plastics and thereby preventing plastic pollution.

Would you support an ordinance like this in your city? If so, what else would you like to see added? If not, tell me why in the comments!

For related posts, check out:

• New Plastic Laws in California
• How Lobby Meetings Work