At it’s December 5 meeting, San Marcos City Council discussed a resolution recommended by the Parks and Recreation board to ban single-use beverage containers in riverfront parks and limit the allowed cooler size per person.

The San Marcos Parks and Recreation Board evaluated the majority of litter collected is beverage related waste. The recommended resolution does not prohibit single use food containers.

“The vast amount of litter that [is] retrieved from the river is not necessarily food containers or chip bags. It’s the tiny Capri Sun straw wrappers, It’s plastic bottles, it’s cans, [the waste] was vastly beverage related,” Director of Parks and Recreation Jamie Lee Case said.

San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson raised concerns about the waste that won’t be prohibited by the resolution.

“I’m concerned about [how] we’re only talking about beverage containers. I am also concerned about the [other waste like] Ziploc bags and plastic forks,” Hughson said. “I don’t want that litter in the river either.”

Other councilmembers, like Alyssa Garza, have concerns about how the ban will affect working class families with limited access to affordable recreation.

Garza said many families don’t feel included in the discussions about regulation in the parks and how changes like the cooler limit could add additional costs for larger multi-generational families.

“I want to highlight a cultural aspect of river hangouts, particularly for our Latinx working class,” Garza said. “I just think we need to be intentional [in the changes], and making sure that folks along the way feel feel heard.”

Councilmember Mark Gleeson, along with other councilmembers, said he’d like to see the regulations enforced across all San Marcos parks, opposed to the riverfront parks only.

The resolution and its details are to be discussed further in later meetings.

The San Marcos City Council meets at 6 p.m. every first and third Tuesday of each month. For more information, visit the City Council website.