Take-out
isn’t over in Oakland.

Fast-food
empires haven’t fallen in Albany.

And
doggie bags still do just fine in San
Francisco.

That’s
despite all the predictions of doom, including a theory that prohibiting
polystyrene would actually make pollution worse, that’s come as cities across
the state have banned the stuff that carry-out food often is packaged in.

Get ready
for more of the same as Foam Fight 2009 hits. It kicked a couple of weeks ago in Monterey, when Lt. Gov.
John Garamendi visited there to congratulate three communities for their
efforts to curb the use of Styrofoam and other plastic food packaging.

“Everyone
knows the three Rs of environmental protection — reduce, reuse, and
recycle,” Garamendi said in a news release. “Styrofoam is difficult
to reduce, even more difficult to recycle, and almost impossible to reuse.
It’s time all California communities joined Monterey, Pacific Grove,
Carmel, and more than 20 other cities and counties in the state in seeking less
environmentally destructive food and beverage containers.”

Statewide,
the restrictions have ranged from an out-right ban — including for grocery
stores — in Albany to prohibiting its use
in city
facilities in Los Angeles.

Though no
statewide legislation has been introduced this session, a news release from
Garamendi says Assembly Democrats Jerry Hill of San Mateo and Pedro Nava of Santa Barbara plan to
introduce a bill.

Last
year’s version – Assembly
Bill 904 sponsored by Democrats Mike Feuer of Los
Angeles, Mark Leno of San Francisco,
Betty Karnette of Long Beach and Paul Krekorian
of Burbank -
passed the Assembly by an easy margin but died in committee in the Senate.

That bill
pretty much followed San Francisco’s
approach, banning polystyrene in restaurants but not grocery stores.

Restaurants
hate the idea, claiming that banning polystyrene is expensive
and banning it won’t end littering.

Littering
isn’t the only problem with polystyrene — the stuff commonly used in food
packaging such as clear plastic cups, trays andclamshells , plus Styrofoam. The other issues are that it simply doesn’t rot and the state has no
significant recycling capabilities, according to a November report by the California
Ocean Protection Council.

Meanwhile,
Californians use 165,000 tons of polystyrene each year for packaging and food
service purposes alone, the report continued. In 1999, an estimated 300,000
tons of polystyrene was disposed of in landfills, with a total disposal cost of
$30 million, the council said.

And if
you think disposal costs are steep now, look at the costs on down the road of
burying it – millions
to build a landfill, sometimes billions
to close one.

According
an analysis of last year’s bill by MB
Public Affairs Inc, a paper cup would cost two cents more than
Styrofoam. Compared to millions or billions, that seems like, well, mere pennies.
Even a law requiring a biodegradable cup — which last year’s bill did
not — would mean only seven cents more. The difference between a foam tray
and a biodegradable one: 14 cents.

The
gaping hole in last year’s bill was that it let grocery stores off the hook for
no real good reason other than the $193,112 in political contributions last
year from the California
Grocers Association.

The
grocers got an even better deal in last year’s Assembly
Bill 2979, which would have let them to charge 25 cents for plastic bags
they’re now providing for free. Plus grocers would have been allowed to keep a
bulk of that revenue to pay for “waste reduction programs,” according
to a Senate
committee analysis of the bill.

Unlike
the bag bill, though, past polystyrene legislation hasn’t included the consumer
gouge component.

Sure,
eateries will pass the costs along to customers, just as they increase their prices
every time the minimum wage goes up.

Either
way, though, customers will wind up paying. The costs will either come up front
with the cup of coffee or down the road in cleanup and landfill expenses.