Restaurants and coffee shops across St. Paul might have to do away with the plastic foam containers and cups many have relied on for to-go orders.
The city is looking into prohibiting businesses from using food packaging that cannot be recycled, composted or reused.
City staff is consulting with business owners to come up with regulations, said Dan Niziolek, deputy director of the Department of Safety and Inspections. If city leaders approve the rule, St. Paul would give businesses a year to implement the changes, Niziolek told members of the business community at a meeting Wednesday.
Meeting attendees nonetheless had concerns and questions about the switch. Compostable materials are more expensive and it can be difficult to find the right size container, business owners and members of local business associations said.
The city needs to come up with an ordinance that works for businesses and should implement it slowly, said Kent Petterson with the West 7th Business Association.
But some St. Paul restaurants, like Highland Grill and Silhouette Bakery and Bistro, have already made the switch to compostable and recyclable takeout materials and said it was worth the effort.
"It was a slight increase in cost, which is never good, but we feel like … being very friendly to the earth is very important," Highland Grill General Manager Kim Lorsung said.
Both of the restaurants got local grants to help pay for the change, and used the money to buy materials and train staff on what is compostable and recyclable.