DC to enforce plastic straw ban next year with exceptions for disability community

DC is banning plastic straws, and Jack Evans’ social standing is taking a hit.

“Many of my friends won’t talk to me anymore,” the Ward 2 DC Council member said with a wry smile during a Committee on Transportation and the Environment hearing last Friday. “They love straws. They don’t understand why they can’t use straws.” Evans said some of his critics recently even threw straws at him in a restaurant.

But he and his colleagues are undeterred. Last week’s hearing emphasized that District officials have moved past the question of whether to nix these plastics in the nation’s capital based on environmental concerns. They’re focused on the logistics of how to ban them starting next year, carving out exceptions for people with disabilities who require straws to drink.

“Effective Jan. 1st, 2019,” DC Department of Energy & Environment director Tommy Wells told the committee, “District businesses and organizations that serve or sell food or beverages must use compostable or reusable straws,” a classification that includes those made of paper, bamboo, hay, stainless steel and glass. Wells said the DC government will focus on creating awareness about this new rule for the first half of next year, but businesses will face fines for non-compliance starting in July.

“Where [the Department of Energy & Environment] recognizes that some customers may require plastic straws to consume food or beverages,” he said, “we encourage businesses and organizations to keep a stock of plastic straws available for this purpose.”

The rationale for banning plastic straws is straightforward: They pollute rivers and oceans, harming fish and other aquatic animals. They take 400 years to degrade, and they’re littered everywhere — the Alice Ferguson Foundation collected nearly 10,000 straws during a Potomac River Watershed cleanup earlier this year. There will always be libertarian objections to these types of government bans — Reason magazine has already risen to the defense of plastic straws — but Seattle imposed one earlier this year, and the idea is gaining traction across the United States and around the world.

In DC, numerous businesses are already on board. Founding Farmers restaurant co-owner Dan Simons launched a campaign in July called “Our Last Straw,” reminding consumers that tiny pieces of plastic straws sometimes end up eaten by fish and then by humans. “I’m gonna eat a fish sandwich this afternoon,” he told attendees of the hearing, “and I’m probably eating some piece of a plastic straw I threw away 30 years ago.” Other partners in the “Our Last Straw” effort, which Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration is promoting, include José Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup and the locally owned restaurants Beefsteak, Open City, the Coupe, Tryst, the Diner and Matchbox.

“Some may say, ‘Straws are so small. How can they really matter?,’” “Our Last Straw” spokesperson Julie Sharkey told the committee. “Actually, they are one of the top 10 contributors to ocean debris.”

Evans acknowledged the biggest concern about banning plastic straws came from the disability community. Mathew McCollough, DC’s director of the Office of Disability Rights, testified that paper straws are more likely to break apart, rendering them unusable or creating a choking hazard. In addition, people with disabilities can severely injure themselves if they bite down hard on a metal or glass straw.

“While the reduction of plastic straws for public consumption is a just and needed cause,” McCollough said, “the complete elimination of plastic straws from these entities neglects the legitimate needs of many DC residents and visitors.”

Wells, who testified at McCollough’s side, made clear that they were all in agreement on this point.

Pending legislation to ban plastic straws — the Sustainable Straws and Stirrers Amendment Act of 2018 — was introduced in July by Evans, Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh and Chairman Phil Mendelson, with eight co-sponsors. But Cheh’s primary question last Friday was whether the council even needed to pass a bill if the DC government can simply enforce restrictions on straws under the 2014 law that prohibited Styrofoam and other non-recyclable, non-compostable containers, lids and utensils.

“Don’t you have sufficient authority?” she asked Wells. “You’ve already announced you’re going ahead on Jan. 1, and this bill is not passed.”

“We do,” he replied, “but the words that made sense when the [2014] law was passed create a little bit of confusion.”

Evans acknowledged that DC will have to identify more alternatives to plastic straws once the ban takes effect. “I’m not a big paper straw fan myself,” he said. “You know, those things kinda mush up and fall apart.” He further noted that many patrons at restaurants and bars like stirrers for their cocktails, many of which are typically plastic and would be prohibited under the new policy.

But the council member has made peace with those critics who lobbed straws at him, even lauding their civic engagement. “There’s no doubt they’re paying attention,” he said. “I’m known as the guy banning straws. There are positives and negatives to that, but it’s the right thing to do.”