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Nancy Sicher of Marshall drinks a beverage from a compostable cup at Toby’s Coffee Bar in Point Reyes Station. More restaurants in Marin County will need to move to compostable foodware becaues of a new ordinance.

Compostable cups are stacked at Toby’s Coffee Bar. Starting in November 2023, single-use plastic foodware is banned in Marin County.

Johnny Dimorente of Point Reyes Station talks with manager Esme Gutierrez manager, as he picks up his beverage in a compostable cup from Toby’s Coffee Bar.

Marin County has approved a ban on single-use plastic foodware, including everything from to-go clamshells to straws.

The Reusable Foodware Ordinance applies in unincorporated parts of Marin County and follows similar actions in San Francisco, Berkeley and several other Bay Area communities. Starting in November 2023, businesses that sell prepared food to go will be required to use compostable containers, cutlery, wrappers, straws and other foodware items.

Supporters say the new rule approved Tuesday will have multiple environmental benefits, including cutting the amount of plastic clogging storm drains and making its way into the ocean.

“Just on the greenhouse gas side, the amount of energy and resources that go into a plastic utensil or plastic cup that gets used for 20 minutes and then thrown away, it’s a huge amount,” said Dana Armanino, sustainability planner for Marin County, where the ordinance supports the local climate action plan.

Several people spoke in support of the ordinance during Tuesday’s Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting including two middle-school students who said they have been working on the issue since fourth grade.

“Now we are in seventh grade and the plastic crisis has only gotten worse,” said Reese Patton of Forest Knolls.

Three municipalities in Marin County — San Anselmo, Fairfax and Sausalito — have already passed similar ordinances banning single-use plastic, and others may soon follow suit, Armanino said.

Besides San Francisco and Berkeley, other Bay Area cities with similar bans include Palo Alto, Mountain View and El Cerrito. (The bans differ widely on their details and degree of restrictions.) Los Angeles County has mandated that takeout foodware be compostable or easily recyclable by next year.

The new rule in Marin County also mandates that food and beverages for dining in be served with reusuable foodware and utensils. It also requires that businesses collect a 25-cent fee for each to-go cup, to encourage people to bring reusuable mugs.

Reducing plastic pollution in the ocean is one of the main aims, since the vast majority of plastic Californians consume is thrown away. Nationwide, only 8.7% of plastic is recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Last month, California announced it would investigate oil companies, saying they have misled customers into thinking their petroleum-based plastic products could be recycled.

Though many Marin County food-service businesses already use compostable to-go containers, the new ordinance will require they use ones made of fiber or paper rather than what’s called bioplastic — containers made of corn starch and certain other materials that cannot be composted in Marin’s existing compost facilities. That causes a lot of confusion both for restaurants and customers, Armanino said.

“There are a lot of people in Marin and in the country who want to do the right thing. It’s just hard to know what the right thing is,” said Armanino. “I’ve seen many of our restaurants through our green business program spend extra money and buy bio-compostable plastics because they think that’s the right thing, but those ultimately end up in the trash.”

Planning for the ordinance began in early 2019 but the pandemic slowed down its implementation. There have been additional delays to give businesses more time to comply in light of staffing shortages and hits to their business caused by the shutdown.

At an April Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting when the ordinance was provisionally approved, representatives from local chambers of commerce expressed support for the ban but asked for more time before it goes into effect.

Compliance will be checked by the health department during restaurant inspections. Marin County is considering providing grants to businesses to help cover the extra costs of buying new containers.

Christian Caizzo, owner of Toby’s Coffee Bar in Point Reyes Station, said that he’s been using compostable cups at his coffee bar for several years, but the price has gotten much higher since the pandemic began, at $175 a case, or about double the cost of regular cups.

“The timing is a little rough considering what everyone has gone through in the pandemic,” he said. “At the same time I want to be an environmentalist and hope everyone can do the right thing.”

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of businesses owned by Christian Caiazzo. He owns one, Toby’s Coffee Bar.

Tara Duggan has written for The San Francisco Chronicle since 1999. Previously part of the Food+Wine department, she currently is on the Climate desk covering environmental aspects of agriculture, food and the ocean, among other topics. She is also coauthor of the upcoming "Steamed: A Catharsis Cookbook" (April 2021) along with other cookbooks including "The Working Cook," "Root to Stalk Cooking" and "The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee." Her writing and recipes have also appeared in the New York Times, Food & Wine Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.