Andrea Arredondo, a cashier at La Tienda, said being more sustainable will be great for the restaurant. (Madi Spector/WUFT News)

By Madi Spector

Jan. 18, 2019

Gainesville City Commission’s final approval of the single-use plastic bags and expanded polystyrene ban took place Thursday night.

For the last year, Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos has spearheaded the movement.

“We need to protect our environment for future generations,” he said.

Small businesses around Gainesville have both mentally and literally prepared for this change.

Andrea Arredondo, a 23-year-old cashier at La Tienda, said she thinks the change will be great for the Mexican restaurant. She suggested that the restaurant could start using organic bags or ceramic plates for their customers to be more sustainable.

“We give a lot of plastic every day,” she said. “So, I think reducing in here will really make a difference.”

However, the ban on Styrofoam might prove to be more difficult than that on plastic.

“As far as the plastic bags, I think that’s going to be a pretty easy transition,” said Danielle Ward, the store manager of Ward’s Supermarket. “It’s an easy fix for us.”

“I don’t know what we’re going to use as something different than Styrofoam,” she said. “But we’ll definitely look into that and see what alternatives there are out there.”

Ward encouraged her customers to start becoming used to not using plastic for shopping. She said it would be wise for her them to start to transition now.

Her cousin, Milan Mixton, the assistant manager of the Natural Foods Department, said the family-owned business is excited for this change. They will have to do research on new alternatives, but their produce section is already using decomposable, cardboard-based materials for their organic products.

Last December, Commissioners Gigi Simmons and Helen Warren spoke in defense of small businesses finding it difficult to transition to new materials.

In the original draft of the ordinance, Commissioner Hayes-Santos introduced a hardship exemption that would allow businesses who make less than $500,000 annually to opt out of the ban. In December, he claimed that he didn’t think it was still necessary.

A separate vote to keep the exemption in the ordinance has been set to the first meeting in March.

In regards to Ward’s Supermarket, Mixton said it’s possible there will be a small price increase for their supplies, but she’s sure it’s something they will be able to absorb.

“It’s not like we’re the only store that will be dealing with that increase,” she said. “I think it will be minimal because alternate materials have been on the market for quite a while now, nationally. So, I think prices are starting to come down on those things.”

She predicts it will not financially impact the supermarket’s customers.

Both plastic newspaper holders and grocery story bags for fruits and vegetables are two exemptions from the ban.

According to Hayes-Santos, the city will be partnering with multiple nonprofit groups to help educate citizens and consumers. These will include the Chamber of Commerce, Zero Waste Gainesville, Keep Alachua Beautiful and the local Girl Scouts Troop.

The city commission unanimously passed the ordinance to ban. Gainesville is now the second city in Florida to do this — the first being Coral Gables. Gainesville’s ban takes effect Aug. 1.

Read the original story here.

Loosey’s Downtown has been prepared for the change since 2017 when it stopped using plastic bags and straws. (Madi Spector/WUFT News)

A collection of biodegradable paper to-go plates, bowls and containers that Mi Apa owner Peter Ynigo decided to use for his business. (Joshua Baker/WUFT News

By Tranelle Maner and Madi Spector
Dec. 13, 2018

GAINESVILLE — A Gainesville city commissioner’s yearlong push to reduce waste across the city appears to be nearing an end.

Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos has throughout 2018 driven the effort for “zero waste” Gainesville. Hayes-Santos spoke at the Dec. 6 meeting that concluded with a unanimous vote to put a styrofoam and plastic bag ban to the first of two city commission votes on Jan. 3.

The Dec. 6 meeting came a year to the day after WUFT’s original report on Hayes-Santos’ vision.

And back in March, the city commission made its first step toward implementing a citywide zero waste policy. That day, Mayor Lauren Poe took to Facebook to share his excitement and add his insight into the plan.

“This action includes engaging our public and business community, working with our many community stakeholders to better measure and avoid waste streams, working to offer incentives and alternatives to wasteful consumption and to work on an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam,” he wrote.

By agreeing to the zero-waste initiative, the city made a commitment to improving the environment. One of its most recent actions was the Oct. 24 groundbreaking of the Eco-Industrial Park on Northeast 63rd Avenue.

But it is the ban on single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam that could alter the environment and business landscape in 2019 and beyond.

A section in the ordinance that would have granted a hardship exemption to businesses that earn less than $500,000 annually was struck from Commissioner Hayes-Santos’ draft. He said he was in support of the exemption at first, but didn’t think it’s needed now.

Commissioner Gigi Simmons pushed for the section to be kept in the ordinance, and Commissioner Helen Warren supported it.

“I think zero waste is great,” Simmons said. “But my concern has always been financial hardship of those small businesses that might find it difficult to transition.”

Alyssa Brown, a Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman said smaller members of the business community expressed concern about the overall cost.

“They support the ordinance and they want to make a difference. They just want to solve the problem in a way that doesn’t cause them to have to close,” she said.

The commission agreed to revisit the hardship exemption during the first meeting in March 2019, allowing enough time for businesses to come forward who are concerned about the effect the ban will have on their balance sheets. The ban, if commissioners approve the ordinance during its first and second readings, would take effect in August 2019.

One group that worked closely with the city commission is Zero Waste Gainesville, a community group advocating for zero-waste city policies.

Founder Nina Bhattacharyya created the group in 2017 because of her passion for the environment and education on sustainable resources.

Bhattacharyya said she and the rest of Zero Waste met with the commissioners to discuss what they would like to see take effect in both the city and county.

“When we met with commissioners, we brought ideas to what should be in the plan. We would love to see composting be placed in the ordinances,” she said.

One of the local groups that Zero Waste supports is the Sea Turtle Conservancy, which advocates for the reducing plastic and pollution that affects marine life.

Lexie Beach, 28, Sea Turtle Conservancy spokeswoman, said the organization has been involved in banning or charging for use of single-use plastic bags in local businesses.

She said the initiative could be especially successful because of students who don’t want to pay extra or waste products.

Read the original story here.