You may have heard that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to ban expanded polystyrene (EPS) was recently approved. This means that beginning on July 1, food establishments will be barred from using foam cups or containers. This will also include the sale of packaging peanuts within the city limit.
Not surprisingly, Dart Container Corporation, one of the largest makers of plastic foam products, and the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that aggressively lobbied city officials and council members are opposed to the ban. But while many environmentalists are cheering and see it as a big step in the right direction, environmentalists are actually split on both sides of the argument.
Implementing a ban of any kind is without a doubt aggressive and many might consider to be extreme. We saw many of our own students very passionately against the idea of placing a ban of any kind on campus, when the issue came up on banning bottled water on campus. So there is the initial moral argument on bans in general first.
But delving into this specific ban a little deeper, some wonder whether this is really the best approach environmentally. Much of the answer depends on what materials packaging will be replaced with. If companies opt to use compostable items to replace EPS and that packaging actually is composted, then this is unquestionably a better option. However in reality there is no wide-spread collection for composting in New York City so most of these items would end up in a landfill where they would take many years to decompose. Most compostable items would decompose more quickly than plastics however. If other plastics are chosen to replace Styrofoam this would most likely be a better option as well, if the plastics actually do get recycled. But again, odds are most would end up in city garbage cans and not into recycling bins. Some plastics actually take longer to decompose in a landfill than Styrofoam.
The ban was based largely on the fact that the market to recycle EPS is very limited and therefore there is no market to establish curbside recycling of the material in the New York City area. But some see a ban as the easy way out and feel that the real solution lies within seeking creative solutions to the recycling challenge. One such example is project making ultra-lightweight green roof growing medium out of shredded expanded polystyrene, coated with an organic gel and mixed with compost and clay. If the ban eliminates a significant number of the products used to make the green roof material, that project will probably die. Additionally, there is a reuse program through UPS in place for packaging peanuts.
But, New York City is not alone. San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Seattle have enacted similar bans. Will this lead other municipalities follow suit?