San Francisco entertainment staff brief commission on single-use foodware rules and event compliance

Senior analyst Dylan Rice updated the San Francisco Entertainment Commission on implementation of the city’s 2018 single-use foodware, plastics, toxics and litter reduction ordinance, which the department says will affect outdoor events and vendors starting July 1, 2019 and again on Jan. 1, 2020.

"The point of the law is to reduce plastic pollution by prohibiting the distribution of plastic straws among other foodware accessories," Rice said. He told commissioners that paper straws may be available on request but cannot be automatically handed to customers, and that items such as plastic beverage plugs, cocktail sticks and stirrers are barred from distribution at events and retailers.

Rice described a two-bucket rollout: the July 2019 rules curb automatic distribution of plastic accessories and the January 2020 rules add reusable-cup requirements for larger events and stricter standards for compostable products. Under the January rule, events on city property with 100 or more attendees must either provide reusable beverage cups for 10% of attendees or actively promote that attendees bring reusable cups. Rice said the Environment Department is launching a low-cost rental program and a third-party washing and return service to help event producers meet the requirement.

Rice also said compostable products will need to be BPI certified beginning Jan. 1, 2020, and that the Environment Department will publish a list of approved products and vendors. "My whole goal all along has been to educate event organizers as early as possible about these changes so they can plan their businesses accordingly," he said.

In response to commissioners’ questions, Rice clarified the rules apply to vendors operating inside permitted event barricades regardless of whether the surface is public or private; individual attendees can bring retail-purchased plastic items into an event, but vendors at the event remain subject to the distribution ban. He described enforcement as data-driven: Recology audits event waste and reports contamination data to the Environment Department, which typically favors corrective, problem-solving responses but can levy fines in extreme contamination cases.

Rice said the department will issue an outdoor-event industry bulletin, expand social-media outreach and host an SF Outdoor Events Network mixer with the Environment Department in winter 2020 to demonstrate low-cost compliance approaches. He offered to provide additional specifics on request.