Sustainability committee advances single‑use materials ordinance, approves ban on 8‑ounce plastic water bottles

At its Sept. 18 meeting, the Santa Barbara City Sustainability Council Committee voted to advance a draft single‑use materials ordinance and separately approved a ban on the sale and distribution of single‑use 8‑fluid‑ounce plastic water bottles at city events and in city facilities.

The committee’s proposed ordinance would expand the city’s existing foam ban to add rigid polystyrene foodware, require disposable foodware distributed to customers to be compostable in the county system and free of added PFAS chemicals, prohibit plastic and bioplastic single‑use cutlery (including removal of the upon‑request exemption), restrict sale of some balloons and confetti, and require a phased rollout of reusable‑first rules for on‑site food service and for permitted events.

Daniella Rosales, who identified herself as a staff member in the Clean Community Division of the city’s Sustainability and Resilience Department, summarized the proposed changes and the staff work since the committee saw an earlier draft in November. Rosales said the draft would amend the municipal code to add rigid polystyrene products to the city’s polystyrene ban and would amend municipal code sections cited in staff materials (identified in the presentation as Municipal Code 9.16.o and Municipal Code 9.165) to create the new disposable foodware standard. “The sale and distribution of these water bottles would be banned in the city,” Rosales said when describing the limited plastic water bottle prohibition; staff clarified the water‑bottle restriction is limited to small, 8‑fluid‑ounce single‑use plastic bottles and that the broader aseptic container prohibition (for items such as juice boxes or Tetra Pak) would apply only at city‑owned or…