Wake up, Culver City Council! It is unfair economically, environmentally and ethically to ask us property owners to pay more taxes to clean up Ballona Creek if you do not ban polystyrene (styrofoam).
Economic injustice:
Who benefits by your refusal to enact a ban? Basically only the manufacturers and those they pay (and pay off) to keep pushing their products.
Just as no small business had to shut down because of the plastic bag ban, neither will they with a polysterene ban. In fact, bringing in more environmentally friendly alternatives should help create new jobs.
And given the overwhelming tax burden the County is imposing on us to help cleanse and keep Ballona Creek clean, it is unjust and makes absolutely no sense for Culver City Council members to vote against the best interests of the tax payers who elected you – in order to protect whom???
Environmental ignorance:
There is more than enough evidence and legal precedent to ban polystryene. For anyone who is unaware of its damaging effects, I encourage you to engage in
actions as simple as participating in the Ballona Creek or beach clean up days, or
look at videos online, such as NASA Video Reveals How 35 Years of Trash Turned Into Ocean …www.takepart.com/…/nasa-video-reveals-35-years-trash-turned-ocean-garba…
The article which contains this video concludes: Plastic waste causes approximately $13 billion in destruction to beaches and ocean habitats, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Add the billions of microbeads being washed down the world’s drains every day to what’s already floating in these five gyres of garbage, and the impact on the food chaincould prove to be even more disastrous.
Closer to home read the July 13, 2016 – LA Times editorial http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-polystyrene-bans-20160713-snap-story.html ),
If you would like scientific research, please read the extensive study and report or at least the resolution based on that study that led the LA County Board of Supervisors on 9/21/2010 to ban stryofoam products in County facilities.
Ethically: Given the data clearly demonstrating the overwhelming need to ban styrofoam and replace it with eco-friendly alternatives, inaction on the Culver City Council’s part to put a ban in effect when so many constituents are demanding one for our well-being and that of generations to come, such inaction is not only immoral, but could also result in litigation for violation of the Public Trust – that is your fiduciary responsibility to respect the will of the people who elected you to promote our health and well-being.
If I can be supportive of your promoting the Common Good, please feel free to contact me.
On behalf of the fishes of the sea, and other marine life with which I have enjoyed swimming, as too human beings, I respectfully request that you, the members of the Culver City Council remember to always prioritize the common good.
Suzanne DeBenedittis
Culver City
