Water bottle ban: auditors pleased with business compliance rate
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – A recent audit shows that 82% of audited businesses in the City of South Lake Tahoe are abiding by the single-use water bottle ban that just went into effect on Earth Day this year.
The ban applies to the sale of single-use plastic water bottles less than one gallon at commercial locations within city limits, with an exception for emergencies and flavored or sparking water.
“Having this pretty rapid acceptance of this ordinance and compliance with it has been super exciting, and we’re hoping to serve as a model for other communities and municipalities that want to also combat litter in their areas of natural beauty.”
That’s from Darby Creegan, Public Policy Intern at the League to Save Lake Tahoe, who conducted the audit this summer and spent 46 hours in the field talking to businesses along with volunteers.
Of the 106 businesses audited, 19 were not in compliance.
Creegan says one common reason for lack of compliance were misunderstandings about the minimum size of plastic water bottle the ordinance allows businesses to sell, which is one gallon. “Some businesses thought it was either a liter or a single serving, and I found those misunderstandings to be fairly reasonable.”
Another common reason, some businesses just weren’t aware of the new regulation. “There was an incredible amount of outreach that was done,” Creegan says, “but some businesses simply did not get it.”
Between December and March, volunteers with the League and the City of South Lake Tahoe visited around 131 businesses informing them about the ordinance. They also sent informational postcards to all businesses within the city that explained the ordinance.
Creegan highlights that of the businesses not in compliance, only 42% of them were visited in the prior outreach attempts. “So more than half of the businesses not in compliance never received a visit, which shows the importance of this very time-consuming, laborious style of outreach.”
She notes the initial outreach phase did not provide a dedicated Spanish speaking person, while this summer audit did and says it’s possible a language barrier could be one reason for noncompliance. Although all their outreach materials were produced in Spanish, “that only goes so far if you don’t have someone who you can ask questions to.”
“At no store,” the public policy intern says, “have people been like, ‘no, I don’t care. I’m just going to keep doing this.'” She adds, “Everyone has been willing to engage in a conversation, which is very nice.”
The audit reveals small grocery stores had the lowest percentage of compliance at about 55%, while supermarkets had around 100% compliance. She said this could be due to big chains having the legal teams that mom-and-pop shops don’t.
Creegan says South Tahoe Refuse may have some promising data in plastic reduction since the ban. The company has collected less number one plastic from May through June compared to March and April, before the ban was in effect.
“However, it’s not statistically significant yet because we don’t have a large enough amount of numbers, so stay tuned for future data on that,” she says.
Examples of compliance looks like fridges filled with aluminum can and cardboard alternatives. With around 20-30 different brands of plastic alternatives, there are options at different prices points.
“It’s great to see that the market has kind of responded to interest from cities like ours and from environmentally minded customers that there are a lot of people who want alternatives to plastic,” Creegan says, “which is just amazing.”
Although cardboard alternatives are better, the League discourages them over aluminum because they are still lined with plastic. She says they are technically recyclable, but not in South Lake Tahoe.
Business owners have said tourists are the ones they receive most questions from. “Those are the customers who they’re having to explain to 10 times a day, 15 times a day, why they don’t have plastic anymore,” Creegan explained to the City of South Lake Tahoe’s City Council in a presentation.
In her auditing this summer, she said there was confusion over why only plastic water bottles were banned and not sodas or other plastic distributed beverages. Creegan says chief among the reasons for the water bottle ban is the quality of Tahoe’s tap water.
It also comes down to what jurisdictions are willing to pass. “This was something that the city council was willing to do. It’s just baby steps,” she says and adds, “This was already super radical.”
Another factor is the fact that water already has many plastic alternatives. Creegan suggested the city meet this question by publicizing material on why only plastic water bottles were banned.
Creegan also suggested the city tighten what she described as a loophole in the ordinance that allows stores to sell large packs of plastic water bottles because they’re flavored water. “It’s kind of crushing to see [these] big packs of almost water.” She says those too have plastic free alternatives.
At council, Creegan also addressed the need for a lake-wide ban. “It’s great that you can’t buy plastic water bottles here in South Lake,” Creegan explains, “but you can just literally walk outside of city bounds, find a store, and buy plastic water bottles there.”
Some businesses, Creegan notes find it frustrating when their Nevada location can sell the plastic water bottles but across the state line, cannot. “We have one lake,” Creegan says, “one watershed.”
She explains passing something like this at the county level is usually difficult. “You can’t only have an ordinance in part of the county.”
However, Placer County is different since they have precedence in housing regulations for only the eastern Tahoe district and has expressed interest in a similar water bottle ban.
With Truckee’s recent ban, the League’s Policy Director, Gavin Feiger, describes water bottle bans around Tahoe as a patchwork approach.
This patchwork has the League and City of South Lake Tahoe City leaders looking to one agency who might be able to make the ban lake-wide. “I do think that the TRPA is really who needs to take this on at a basin wide level,” South Lake Mayor Cody Bass said at the Aug. 13 city council meeting.
Feiger told council, “We haven’t seen them take a real strong stance on litter yet.”
The Tribune reached out to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on their stance on a lake-wide water bottle ban. Jeff Cowen, TRPA Public Information Officer, says the agency is highly concerned about recent studies showing unusually high concentrations of microplastics in the lake. However, the source of water quality impacts is important when shaping policies, he says. “As single-use plastics relate to Lake Tahoe’s water quality, we would like to see more Tahoe specific research to understand what types of plastics are in the lake.”
While the TRPA could not say whether or not it may create regulations for a lake-wide water bottle ban in the future, the TRPA is working with Destination Stewardship on strategies to reduce litter and improve the management of outdoor recreation areas.
“We will continue to look closely at issues around micro plastics and litter,” Cowen says, “to clarify some of the unknowns.”
The League to Save Lake Tahoe has the audit report on their website.
