bloomberg wants to ban styrofoam

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February 13, 2013

To Go: Plastic-Foam Containers, if the

Mayor Gets His WayBy MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUMIt is the most humble of vessels for New York City foodstuffs, ubiquitous at Chinese takeout joints

and halal street carts. In pre-Starbucks days, coffee came packaged in its puffy embrace.

But the plastic-foam container may soon be going the way of trans fats, 32-ounce Pepsis, and

cigarettes in Central Park.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose regulatory lance has slain fatty foods, supersize sodas, and

smoking in parks, is now targeting plastic foam, the much-derided polymer that environmentalists

have long tried to restrict.

On Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg, in his 12th and final State of the City address, will propose a

citywide ban on plastic-foam food packaging, including takeout boxes, cups and trays. Public

schools would be instructed to remove plastic-foam trays from their cafeterias. Many restaurants

and bodegas would be forced to restock.

In excerpts from his speech released on Wednesday, Mr. Bloomberg rails against plastic foam,

even comparing it to lead paint. We can live without it, we may live longer without it, and the

doggie bag will survive just fine, the mayor plans to say.

Call it the era of clamshell prohibition.

To become law, the ban would require approval by the City Council. The Council speaker, Christine

C. Quinn, suggested in an interview that she was open to a ban on plastic foam as part of a larger

effort to increase recycling.

It lives forever, Ms. Quinn said. Its worse than cockroaches.

The plastic foam used in food packaging is not actually Styrofoam, according to Dow Chemical, the

company that makes Styrofoam. The company says its product is widely used as insulation, but not

in the manufacture of disposable foam products, such as cups, coolers, meat trays and packing

peanuts.

Officials at City Hall said a plastic-foam ban could save millions of dollars a year. Plastic foam,

which is not biodegradable, can add up to $20 per ton in recycling costs when the city processes

recyclable materials. The city handles about 1.2 million tons of food waste each year; the mayors

Bloomberg Target - Plastic Foam Cups - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/nyregion/next-bloomberg-ta

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office estimated that the citys annual waste stream included about 20,000 tons of plastic foam.

New York led the nation in restricting smoking and sugary drinks, but the city is a relative

latecomer to the antifoam trend: measures against the material are already in place in Los Angeles;

Portland, Ore.; San Francisco and Seattle. Mr. Bloomberg has been only a sometime-ally of

recycling advocates; early in his tenure, he called for the suspension of some recycling to save the

city money.

Eric A. Goldstein, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York,

hailed the foam plan as an important step forward, saying it would bring environmental and

quality-of-life benefits to the city.

Plastic foam, Mr. Goldstein said, is so brittle. He added: It breaks into these tiny pieces, and its

not easy to clean up. Getting rid of it means our parks, our streets, our waterways, will all be

cleaner.

The restaurant industry, which has complained about overregulation by City Hall, offered a more

measured response on Wednesday.

We have to consider what the costs will be for both government and the business owners who

make the city run, said Andrew Moesel, a spokesman for the New York State Restaurant

Association. He noted that containers made of paper can often be more expensive than their foam

counterparts.

Mr. Bloomberg is not the first mayor of New York City to propose a crackdown on foam. In 1987,

Mayor Edward I. Kochjoined a campaign to encourage fast-food restaurants to reduce their use ofthe product. McDonalds later phased out foam boxes from its restaurants.

Mr. Bloombergs proposal is one element of a larger environmental protection effort he plans to

pursue during his final year in office. In his speech, he will also pledge to install 1,000 recycling

containers on sidewalks, doubling the current number.

The percentage of waste that is recycled by the city has fallen during the Bloomberg

administration, to 15 percent today, from 23 percent in 2001. Mr. Bloomberg, in his speech, will

call for the city to achieve a 30 percent recycling rate by 2017.

He will also propose taking the first steps toward city collection of food waste for composting,

starting with a pilot program on Staten Island.


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bloomberg wants to ban styrofoam

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