Local Businesses Balk At The Idea
With smoking, salty foods and sugary drinks all taken care of, the city may now be taking aim at outlawing plastic foam packaging.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg used a portion of his final State of the City address last Thursday. Feb. 14, to discuss recycling efforts and push for a citywide ban on all Styrofoam packaging that New Yorkers are accustomed to seeing with their morning coffee and takeout meals.
Polystyrene foam, sometimes sold under the brand name Styrofoam, makes lightweight, heat-retaining containers, but environmentalists are concerned that it takes too long to break down in trash.
“One product that is virtually impossible to recycle and never bio-degrades is Styrofoam. Something that we know is environmentally destructive and that may be hazardous to our health, that is costing taxpayers money and that we can easily do without, and is something that should go the way of lead paint,” Bloomberg said in the address at the Barclays Center.
There is an estimated 20,000 tons of plastic foam in the city’s waste stream each year, according to the mayor’s office. Similar bans have been adopted in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.
The initiative would need the support of City Council. Council Member James Gennaro, who chairs the committee on environmental protection, said he would like to see more details but supports the idea.
“There are better and healthier ways to go,” he said.
The mayor wants food service businesses to switch to certain types of recyclable plastic and paper instead, much to the dismay of local food businesses and the 140 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in Queens.
“A polystyrene ban will not eliminate waste or increase recycling; it will simply replace one type of trash with another,” Dunkin’ Donuts said in a statement. “Although a viable cup solution does not exist today, we are taking a holistic approach to the issue that we believe will be more effective in the long term than a polystyrene ban. We have reviewed or tested nearly every type of single-use hot cup on the market, but a viable alternative does not yet exist.”
Sam Ambaza, who works at a food cart on Main Street near Queens College said a ban on foam containers would be costly because it would force him to use more expensive aluminum ones.
“It’s just bad for us,” he said.
In his first term, Bloomberg pushed through a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.
During Bloomberg’s 11-year tenure, the city also has made chain restaurants post calorie counts on their menus and barred artificial trans fats in french fries and other restaurant food. The controversial large soda ban, which was approved by the Board of Health in September, goes into effect Mar. 12.
