The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday called for a report back on the feasibility of requiring labels informing consumers on the "lifecycle" of food packaging and other products.
Council members voted 12-0 to support the motion introduced by members Monica Rodriguez and Katy Yaroslavsky in September 2023. Rodriguez and Yaroslavsky are seeking to add packaging biodegradability information to help consumers understand long-term impacts to the environment.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
Council members Kevin de León, Monica Rodriguez and Traci Park were absent during the vote.
The motion noted that while plastics can often be used for long periods of time and produced at a low cost, it can take 20 to 500 years for certain plastics to biodegrade.
According to the councilwomen, a key strategy to fully implement the city's Sustainable LA goals is to make sure the public is well-informed when making consumer purchases.
Some grocery chains are considering efforts to reduce the use of plastics in some of their products by changing to alternative or sustainable packaging, or even eliminating plastic wrapping and selling products loose as an "a la carte" service, according to the motion.
But more could be done were the city to require that packaging is labeled with the date of its lifecycle or a biodegradable date in the form stick or printed label, officials said.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok