Second in a series. 

Re: “A Small and Useful History Lesson”

There is no need to despair when Culver City enacts a Styrofoam ban in the autumn for environmental purposes, says City Councilman Thomas Small.

Convinced the conversion process will be painless, he hopes elimination of Styrofoam food containers will just be the first of multiple steps to subtract nuisances to the environment.

“I don’t know anybody who loves Styrofoam,” said Mr. Small, “although they like that it is cheap.

“There are alternatives. We will transition to alternatives. A huge number of cities — and other countries — already have made this transition.”

In a setting that generated anticipated and unexpected controversy, the City Council voted 4-1 on Monday evening to send the raw proposal to a Council subcommittee for refinement that will take at least 60 days – followed by further refinement into ordinance form by city staff. As the single dissenter, Mr. Small contended the document first proposed by the Ballona Creek Renaissance group should have been sent directly to city staff. Be efficient. Save time. He believes the chosen route has caused needless delay.

Long after the meeting ended, Mr. Small’s lively mind belatedly produced several potentially persuasive ideas he wished he had thought of when everyone was on the dais.

“I wish I had said to my colleagues, ‘Do you want to go down in history as being people who decided to delay this?’” Mr. Small said. “‘Do you want to be remembered as people who made a decision that put more of this into our ocean and creeks rather than just stopping it?’”

Mr. Small turned to another crucial dimension of the coming ban.

The impressively prepared first-year Councilman said that “it doesn’t mean we can’t create a more holistic, all-encompassing, comprehensive recycling program. We need to, and we will.”

The trouble with the routing decision the Council made Monday evening, said Mr. Small, is that it creates a detour. Going to the Sustainability Committee of Councilmembers Goran Eriksson and Meghan Sahli-Wells “just slows down the process.

“There is not much point to it. They are going to fight about it some more and bring it back to us and only then will it be sent to city staff. The staff did such a great job,” Mr. Small said, “of figuring out this (ban structure).

“Joe Susca had a terrific analysis of the challenges involved in creating a recycling program for Styrofoam, including the challenges that Los Angeles has had. And he could do further research.

“Hopefully, the Sustainability Subcommittee will enlist city staff to help them with this,” the Councilman said.