CEQA PEIR: Comprehensive Plastics Reduction

The City of Los Angeles (City), acting as the Lead Agency through its Bureau of Sanitation (LA Sanitation and Environment, LASAN), prepared a Final Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the Comprehensive Plastics Reduction Program (Program). Los Angeles City Council certified the Final PEIR and supporting documents on October 1, 2024.

• Location: The Program encompasses entire City of Los Angeles.
• Description: The City seeks to implement citywide measures through the Program to reduce or eliminate the production and use of single-use plastic products. Proposed upstream strategies within the Program include bans on specific single-use items, product stewardship initiatives, extended producer responsibility programs, design requirements for durable/reusable/recyclable products, and program efficacy evaluations. To manage the anticipated increase in reusable, compostable, and recyclable alternative materials, the Program includes proposed downstream measures. These include constructing or expanding recycling and composting facilities, developing regional markets for previously unmarketable single-use items, establishing infrastructure for reusable items, and implementing public outreach and enforcement.

• Less Than Significant Impacts (with Mitigation): The Final PEIR identified potentially significant impacts from proposed downstream measures that could be reduced to less than significant levels through adoption of proposed mitigation measures for Aesthetics, Agriculture and Forestry, Air Quality, Geology and Soils, Hydrology and Water Quality, and Utilities and Service Systems.
• Significant and Unavoidable Impacts: The Final PEIR identified potentially significant and unavoidable impacts from the proposed downstream measures to Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Hazards and Hazardous Materials, Noise, Transportation, Tribal Cultural Resources, and Wildfire.
• Upstream Impact Assessment: No potentially significant and unavoidable impacts were identified for the proposed upstream measures.

The Draft PEIR underwent a 45-day public review period, which began on March 12, 2024, and ended on April 26, 2024.

To assist the public in reviewing the environmental analysis, three virtual public meetings were held:

• Public Draft PEIR Meeting #1: Thursday, March 21, 2024, at 11:00 a.m.
• Public Draft PEIR Meeting #2: Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 6:00 p.m.
• Public Draft PEIR Meeting #3: Saturday, April 6, 2024, at 9:00 a.m.