Berkeley’s single use foodware and litter reduction ordinance

Food packaging waste contributes to a significant portion of local litter, with city residents generating upward of 40 million single-use cups per year. Besides, the overseas recycling market is starting to collapse, not allowing cities to rest upon such a “solution”.

To assist businesses with the shift away from single use disposable foodware to reusable foodware, the city decided to provide onsite technical assistance and other resources to help businesses comply. As part of the City of Berkeley’s Zero Waste Goal, the city has issued on March 27, 2019, the Single Use Foodware and Litter Reduction Ordinance, to reduce single use foodware, including cups, lids, utensils, straws, clamshells, and other disposables. This ordinance applies to all prepared food vendors, such as bakeries, cafeterias, drive-ins, food products stores, food service establishments, drugstores, theatres, bars, and other similar establishments. In addition to mandating compostable and reusable foodware, the ordinance requires businesses to implement a $0.25 charge for disposable cups by January 2020. The ordinance requirements came into effect on July 1, 2021, and will have to report initial results by 2022.

The ordinance aims at eliminating single use foodware by 2020 and will hopefully act as a precedent for other cities around the country. Overall, the city of Berkeley enjoys a strong reputation as one of the nation’s foremost sustainability trailblazers by being the first U.S. city to enact a ban on expanded polystyrene products, and by launching one of the country’s first curb side recycling programs as early as in 1973.