Last February, the Truckee Town Council directed Keep Truckee Green staff to form a working group in order to move forward with single-use foodware reduction policies.

Nearly a year later, due to delays caused by COVID-19, the Single-Use Foodware Reduction Working Group had its first meeting, establishing formal positions and laying groundwork for 2022.

Truckee Mayor Courtney Henderson was named chair of the group and Old Town Tap owner Marlena John was named co-chair. The nine-person group consists of representatives from local businesses, environmental advocates, students, and other members of the public.

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Among items the group will address will be an implementation plan following the passage of Assembly Bill 1276, which will require restaurants to only provide single-use foodware upon request of the customer.

The group will also work on bringing new policies for Truckee Town Council to consider. In the coming months the group will work on policies that could require reusable foodware for in-house dining at restaurants, a possible ban on the use of polystyrene — more commonly known as Styrofoam, and implementing a fee on disposable foodware, which would be similar to the bag fee at grocery stores.

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“The goal is to shift our culture towards reusable and away from disposable,” said Truckee Administrative Analyst Melanie Conti. “These different policies are really focusing on that.”

Conti said she expects the group to begin bringing recommendation to the Town Council in early summer.

Truckee’s Single-Use Foodware Reduction Working Group will host its second meeting at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 31, via Zoom. An agenda for the group’s next meeting has yet to be announced, but Conti indicated work will be focused on potentially banning the use of polystyrene.

Meetings are open to the public and can be found at http://www.townoftruckee.com.

Justin Scacco is a staff writer with the Sierra Sun. He can be reached at jscacco@sierrasun.com