SOUTH LAKE TAHOE – A ban on single-use plastic water bottles went into effect in South Lake Tahoe just over two months ago, and city leaders said they are pleasantly surprised by the results so far.
“As far as I know, we are at or near 100% compliance for the businesses in town,” said Sara Letton, sustainability coordinator for South Lake Tahoe.
Letton said the community has been very receptive to the ban and there has not been any backlash.
The regulation was adopted in 2022 and rolled out in two phases.
The first ban came into effect in 2023 for city facilities and events, the second ban took effect in April 2024 for commercial sellers.
“Anecdotally from our recycler, it appears that plastic water bottle recycling has decreased a bit, and we hope this is because the overall volume of plastic water bottles in the community has decreased,” Letton said.
Stuart Maas is marketing director for Visit Lake Tahoe and said at the start of the April 2024 ban, they ordered 35,000 reusable water bottles as part of the “Drink Tahoe Tap” campaign.
He said so far they have handed out about 20,000 to visitors and community members to encourage them to fill up at one of their stations instead of using plastic.
“We’re just trying to change the behavior and the mindset so that we really move from the single-use plastic to a reusable bottle,” Maas said.
He said there are about 48 gas stations in South Lake Tahoe, at various hotels and public areas.
League to Save Lake Tahoe has seen a positive response from the community, saying in a statement:
“After reaching out to hundreds of local businesses about the ordinance, we are encouraged to see that many are well on their way to completely phasing out single-use plastic products. And that change isn’t just happening within the city limits. There are businesses around the more that do more than is necessary to protect Tahoe’s environment.
“We’re trying to say, ‘Hey, drink our tap water. It’s extraordinary.’ We’re not trying to say, ‘Go buy another disposable water container,'” Letton said.
Letton added that it can be difficult to track single-use water bottles, so they hope to have more data in the future on how the regulation has worked so far.
Truckee also passed a similar ordinance earlier this year.
