It has been about seven years since the city first banned those ubiquitous thin plastic checkout bags from grocery stores and other businesses, leaving Oahu residents to bring their own bag or pay 15 cents for a reusable or recyclable one.
Those bags, which do not biodegrade, no longer litter the landscape or blow into the ocean for marine life to choke on. And despite the howls of protest — the bags were convenient, strong and cheap — somehow we learned to live without them.
As of this week, we will learn to live without something else: those ubiquitous single-use, nonrecyclable plastic takeout containers that held our beef stew and rice. They, too, were convenient, strong and cheap — and mostly no more.
After three years of preparation, delays and halting steps forward, the city on Sept. 6 fully engaged its sweeping restrictions on disposable plastic food and service ware, including polystyrene foam containers, plastic cups, plates, bowls, trays, forks, knives and spoons. The law restricts products from “any material made of fossil fuel derived or petrochemical polymeric compounds and additives that can be shaped by flow.”
The Disposable Food Ware Ordinance was signed into law on Dec. 15, 2019, a few months before COVID-19 reached our shores. Since then, full implementation was held up by deadline extensions and exemptions to give businesses more time to use up old inventory, set up new supply chains for compliant food ware, and ride out the pandemic.
Many businesses already have converted. But now the exemptions have timed out, and, for the most part, we can expect our takeout food purchases to come in biodegradable or compostable containers made without petroleum products.
That’s a good thing. Our hearty consumption of takeout food, thanks to Hawaii’s plate-lunch tradition, generates a lot of waste; better that it not be a Styrofoam clamshell, which won’t decompose and can generate harmful chemicals. The new law could significantly mitigate the ecology-damaging content in our garbage.
Still, the technology is evolving. Available products include bioplastics, made with corn, sugar or cassava. They’re a strong alternative, but generally can be composted only through industrial processes; they won’t turn to mulch in your backyard composter. Those made with natural fibers like paper or cardboard may be more easily biodegradable, but may not hold your loco moco gravy for too long.
As always, the best way to make a difference lies with the consumer: Dispose of all trash properly and securely, in recycling bins if possible. And bring your own reusable utensils. Every little bit helps.
