The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion Tuesday to ban single-use plastic straws from being handed out at all businesses serving food or drink in unincorporated parts of the county, unless they are requested.

If the motion is signed into law later this year, the ordinance is expected to go into effect at the beginning of 2019 for the unincorporated parts of LA County, which include Castaic, Val Verde and Stevenson Ranch.

Although Gov. Brown has already signed a bill limiting full-service restaurants supplying plastic, fast food restaurants are still able to provide plastic straws without request.  

However, the county motion has taken it a step further by impacting restaurants, bars and fast food establishments — not just full-service restaurants — as well as addressing the concerns of disabled people who may require straws.

“Restricting the use of straws is one step toward a much larger goal of raising public awareness and reducing the amount of discarded plastics that pollute the planet,” said Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, co-author of the motion. “As of January 2019, servers will ask customers if they want a straw or stirrer. It’s up to the customer. If you want one, you can still get one.”  

The restriction on plastic straws and stirrers is meant to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up on county beaches, landfills and waterways, according to a county news release.

“So many of the plastic straws that end up being thrown out are ones that customers didn’t need or want,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “With a relatively small change of making plastic straws available only upon request we can make a big difference in the amount of wasted plastic that ends up in our landfills and pollutes our waterways.”  

More than 100 municipalities in California — including Santa Monica, Calabasas, Culver City, Hermosa Beach, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Pasadena, South Pasadena and Hollywood — have adopted similar ordinances.

Some companies have already established their own plastic straw bans, such as Starbucks, who has promised to discontinue using straws by 2020 in favor of a new recyclable strawless lids and alternative-material straw options.

The company estimates that this change will eliminate the use of 1 billion straws annually.

The countywide ordinance on plastic straws, if signed into law, could potentially to go into effect Jan. 1, 2019.

For more information on the “Straw Law” motion, click here.

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.