City, restaurants partner to reduce single-use plastics

City Council wants the local hospitality industry – including restaurants, bars, food delivery services and the tourism bureau – to curb its reliance on single-use plastics. 

Council members recently directed staff to incentivize such behavior, including by working with the Austin Restaurant Association, citing the city’s goal of drastically reducing the amount of trash sent to landfills by 2040 and a recent report on trash in creeks.

Staffers responded in a Dec. 8 memo, listing several ongoing initiatives as well as some obstacles in the way of Council suggestions, saying, “Work by staff to reduce waste from single-use plastics at the source is underway and will continue for the foreseeable future.”

District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo sponsored the original resolution, which Council members unanimously approved on consent Oct. 13.

“This hit me a few weeks ago when I was cleaning out cabinets and realized I had several bags of plastics from the pandemic that had accumulated,” she said at the meeting. She said she was able to take the material to Austin Creative Reuse, but she thought, “Wouldn’t it be greater if the default was that restaurants and take-outs didn’t provide you with single-use plastics?”

Tovo also pointed to an Aug. 17 report by the city’s Watershed Protection Department, which found single-use plastic beverage and food containers were the most common kind of trash found local creeks. The report also cited a statistic from the Good Tourism Institute showing that the average traveler uses 30 single-use water bottles during a two-week trip. 

“This resolution would direct the manager to look at measures to … try to reduce plastic in our community, (such as) giving visitors to Austin a reusable bottle they can use and take with them,” she said. “It’s probably good for our environment and a cost savings when you think of how much we spend to clean our creeks and waterways once they have plastic in them.” 

Madison Gessner, executive director for the Central South Texas Region of the Texas Restaurant Association, welcomed the resolution and the chance to partner with the city to achieve its zero-waste goals.

She said many local restaurants and food delivery services already ask customers if they want single-use plasticware as part of their ordering protocol.

“That’s a really easy way that they are reducing the usage right now – and also a cost savings for the restaurant,” she told the Austin Monitor.

Other interventions can prove difficult for restaurateurs. Gessner said switching to biodegradable containers, for instance, can be costly as well as leaky and may prompt supply issues. She would like to see the city partner with the University of Texas or local tech companies to spur development of better, more affordable options.

“Austin’s a really great innovative place,” she said. “The city could leverage that to look at companies (to work toward) our waste goals.”

Lucia Athens, the city’s chief sustainability officer, and Austin Resource Recovery Director Ken Snipes responded to the resolution via memo, referencing previous resolutions as well as ongoing incentive and outreach programs designed to reduce single-use plastics.

Council adopted a resolution in 2008 prohibiting the city from purchasing plastic water bottles for use in City Hall, except in certain emergency and field scenarios, according to the memo. The city also adopted the Universal Recycling Ordinance in 2012, which ensures access to recycling at commercial and multifamily properties and to food donation or composting services at restaurants and grocery stores. 

The memo referred to a series of existing programs, including:

• ARR’s Zero Waste Business Rebate program, which pays eligible businesses up to $3,000 for reducing waste beyond the minimum requirements of the Universal Recycling Ordinance; 
• ARR’s Business Outreach Team, which educates businesses on the reduction and reuse of single-use plastics;
• The city’s Circular Economy program, which works with businesses to encourage circular – or sustainable – practices;
• The Austin Reuse Coalition’s Restaurant Blitz, a recent consumer-led audit of single-use plastics at local restaurants; and
• The city’s Zero Waste at City Facilities policy, which is in final review and will ensure all city employees receive zero-waste training annually.

Athens and Snipes committed to a handful of changes in response to Tovo’s resolution. For the Circular Economy program, staff will reach out to restaurant delivery services “to better understand the feasibility of opting out of single-use items through their platforms,” according to the memo.

ARR is in the process of updating the city’s comprehensive zero-waste plan and has proposed including a directive to “engage businesses, restaurants, and multifamily properties on the topics of circular economy, economic development and city code.” 

The Office of Sustainability is developing a regional food plan, which could be amended to include restaurant outreach.

Not all of Council’s requests can be met, however. Staff didn’t recommend Tovo’s suggestion to offer visitors a reusable water bottle upon arrival at the Austin airport, citing existing water bottle filling stations, cost and the possibility that visitors would throw the bottles away.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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