KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Plastic straws, once a staple in restaurants throughout the country, are facing backlash as wasteful pieces of trash, with California lawmakers leading the charge against the plastic debris with proposed legislation leveling fines on restaurants that hand out drinking straws.
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In Santa Clarita, many restaurants are voluntarily declining to provide straws unless customers specifically ask for them, in apparent anticipation of the legislation.
Santa Barbara: Behind Bars Over Straws
The Santa Barbara City Council has passed an ordinance banning restaurant, bar and other food establishment owners in the city – about two hours from Santa Clarita – from handing out plastic straws, and mandating a hefty fine and potential jail time if they disregard the ordinance.
The ordinance states first-time violators will receive a written warning detailing the severity of the violation and future punishments if the violation is repeated. After the warning is issued, further violations will result in a fine, and after multiple offenses, jail time is possible.
Each plastic straw handed out will result in a separate violation, meaning if a waiter serves a group of four and gives each of them a straw, they will receive a fine for each of the four straws handed out.
Related: Marriott Plans To Eliminate Straw Use Worldwide By 2019
Non-plastic straws are also banned under the ordinance unless customers specifically ask for them.
The ordinance was passed as a way to potentially limit the amount of littered plastic products, which continue to cause environmental harm and have burdened the government with significant cleanup costs.
Although this is possibly the harshest plastic prohibition in the country, Santa Barbara is not the first to ban plastic straws.
At the start of July, officials from Seattle enacted a ban which fined violators $250 per offense, and earlier this week San Francisco voted unanimously to approve a measure which would ban plastic straws, carryout containers and wrappers containing fluorinated chemicals.
Starbucks: Plastic-Ditching Trendsetter
Santa Clarita residents can see these changes locally in some well-known establishments they may often frequent.
Earlier this month, Starbucks announced that it will ban plastic straws from all of its stores worldwide, with Marriott International and American Airlines quickly following.
Starbucks plans to completely eliminate plastic straws from their stores by 2020.
Plastic straws, which Americans use 500 million of daily, is the top contributor to the 8 million tons of plastic trash that flow into the world’s oceans yearly, according to National Geographic.
California: Santa Clarita Senator Wary Of Criminal Straws
In the California legislature, a bill is being worked on that would codify the voluntary abandonment of straws seen in Santa Clarita into law.
Assembly Bill No. 1884 would ban restaurants from providing single-use plastic straws unless specifically requested by the customer. According to State Senator Scott Wilk, who represents Santa Clarita as part of the 21st California Senate district, some changes have been made to the bill since it passed the Assembly, including reductions to fines for violations.
For the first and second violations under the currently proposed bill, offenders would be given a warning, with subsequent offenses resulting in a fine of $25 for every day the establishment is in violation of the ban, with a $300 limit on the annual total.
“That’s a reduced fine,” Wilk said. “Before, the fine was $1,000 and you could go to jail.”
The ban would be enforced by the same officers who enforce the California Retail Food Code.
The bill was first introduced in January 2018 and was approved and sent to the Senate on May 30. After a series of amendments to the bill, it was sent back to the California Senate Committee on Appropriations to reconsider.
But Wilk said the time being spent on debating the criminalization of straws shows wayward priorities in the legislature.
“I think we have a lot more pressing issues than that issue,” he said. “Should we do more to reduce our use of plastics? Absolutely. But to criminalize it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
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The idiots have finally gained control
Finally? They have to pay for plastic grocery bags because it is wasteful of the plastic too, (for years now). Idiots have run California for decades.
Since mammals naturally need to suck, reusable nipples
and suitable containers should be the natural answer.
Like adult sippy cups…hilarious!
Which use more plastic than a straw!
I would not see this ordinance as a problem if the local eateries all washed their glassware properly. All don’t. Easy to get sick from improperly washed glasses.
Their glassware is washed as well as their plates and silverware are…
Does that mean that you refuse to eat from their plates and silverware, too??
I saw this whole thing coming, and I want to help stop contributing to the plastic patch in the Pacific, that’s why I’ve backed a re-usable stainless collapsible straw on Kickstarter called FinalStraw! Can’t wait to get it! Comes with a cool plastic holder you put on your keychain! Check it out!!???? I know it’s not much, but it’s one thing in the right direction.
Eventually your SS collapsible straw will be banned too…technically it’s still a straw, SS or not. Someone will most certainly complain when you tote that thing to a restaurant. THIS. This is how ridiculous AB 1884 will become with people hyper-focused on what-constitutes-a-straw technicalities and petty lawsuits that tie up our court systems.
I’m pretty sure that the fines, etc are towards the restaurant for handing out straws, and not towards the patron who can buy straws online from other states/ countries.
This is the perfect example of leftist hysteria…and Commiefornia will bow down again, just like with the grocery bags. Anybody who is seriously worried about this needs to get a life and a job and possible a one way ticket to the Congo to see what real problems look like.
#FirstWorldProblems
Again lawmakers are trying to prohibit something without looking into a possible replacement or solution. My son requires straws to drink independently and refuses to drink out of paper, glass, or rigid straws due to sensory issues. I get what they are trying to do, just live in fear of not being able to get straws for my son.
Perhaps these ridiculous efforts of suing restaurants and wait staff would be better served (and less costly), if they found a way to recycle plastic straws. WHO would of thunk!!
The power-mad lunatic Leftists that run this state will continue to micromanage, boss around and eliminate private choice from the average citizen who did or didn’t vote for them.
This is what you get when you vote for Leftists: an increasingly larger paths to jail if dare to buck them.
If you’re in favor of this sort of silliness, hug a totalitarian fascist dictator. Coming to a restaurant near you.
Drain Hetch Hetchy. Dry up San Francisco.
Hug a totalitarian fascist dictator?
That, Randall, would be our president.
But it’s pay for hugs with him and you can’t afford it.
We have to do whatever we can to reduce plastic in the ocean. Its killing everything, fish, turtles, sea birds. In just the last few decades we have trashed the ocean. Disgusting. While straws are certainly not the largest part of this trash, it is a start and a way to begin to make people aware of the plastic problem. If you want to continue to use straws, paper straws will still be available or bring your own re-usable straw.
Please google plastic trash in the ocean to see what is happening. It is appalling and anyone that views the sea bird and fish die off from their mistaking plastic as food will understand the problem and why we need to fix it.
And yes it matters in Santa Clarita. Our river runs to the ocean and there is LOTS of plastic trash in it. Be a part of the solution. Reduce or refuse to use plastic packaging, bags and straws. Attend the City’s River rally on Sept. 22nd and help with the clean up right here in Santa Clarita. http://greensantaclarita.com/calendar/river-rally/
slowly by slowly, they keep getting a piece of freedoms. Look around
First off don’t buy into these “staged” photos of fish, turtles and birds dieing from plastic straws, they know it’s not food and don’t eat them. Second, of the so called 8 million tons of plastic glowing in to the oceans, who is weighing all this and how much of this weight is actually straws? Thirdly, we need a healthy amount of rain over a lengthy period of time for any SCV river to reach the ocean… So stop trying to control my freedoms with your illogical fanatical view point…
Ban Mylar balloons.