City of Monterey further reducing plastic

Monterey will soon be joining the movement of other Central Coast cities- in removing single-use plastics from food vendors.

While it’s something most places in the city have already been doing, including wharf restaurant LouLou’s, it will become law on April 22.

Jake Headley, who works at the LouLou’s, says, “Being right here on the wharf, it’s important that we take care of the environment.” And taking care of the environment was the exact reason the city put together the ordinance.

Ted Terrasas, with the Monterey Sustainability Office, says that plastic is, “Something that we are using for five or ten minutes, that’s ending up in the environment for hundreds, potentially, of years.”

Terrasas grew up in California and caring about the environment was what got him into working with the city’s sustainability office. He says this ordinance doesn’t just eliminate straws. “It’s actually whatever you are giving people to enjoy your food … That the thing that is holding it, if you are sipping it through a straw, or you’re eating it with a fork or a spoon. Whatever you are providing should not be a plastic item that is going to get thrown away.”