The Eugene City Council this week voted unanimously to limit access to single-use items like plastic forks, straws and individually wrapped condiments.
The ordinance requires that restaurants, food carts, and other eating establishments only give out single-use items to customers who ask for them. Michael Wisth is Waste Prevention and Green Building Program Analyst with the city.
Wisth “These items have real impacts when they become litter in the environment. And that’s not just plastics, that’s almost all these types of items no matter what the material when they end up in the environment. They have both environmental and human health risks. So, it’s important that we’re kind of limiting what goes into our litter and ends up in our water-ways.”
Wisth says many Eugene restaurants have already been cutting back on their use of single-use items voluntarily. The ordinance will take effect in about a month.