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Waste & Recycling April 22, 2019 02:30:30 AM

City of Buffalo, NY Considers Ban on Styrofoam Food Service Containers

Waste Advantage
ScrapMonster Author
With New York State’s recent passage of the Plastic Carryout Bag Prohibition, another largely unrecycled stream of plastics will be removed from our waste stream.

City of Buffalo, NY Considers Ban on Styrofoam Food Service Containers

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The City of Buffalo is considering legislation to ban Expanded Polystyrene (Plastic Foam) Food Packaging (commonly known by the trademark name Styrofoam®). Over 90 percent of plastics never get recycled and Expanded Polystyrene makes up large percentage of that amount.

With New York State’s recent passage of the Plastic Carryout Bag Prohibition, another largely unrecycled stream of plastics will be removed from our waste stream.   Like the plastic bag, Expanded Polystyrene Food Packaging is not recyclable through municipal recycling programs. Unlike the plastic bag, there is no drop off program (or a recycling center in New York State) for used Expanded Polystyrene Food Packaging.   In review for their current ban, New York City’s Department of Sanitation determined that “Expanded Polystyrene single serve articles were not recyclable in an “economically feasible” and “environmentally effective” way.” Expanded Polystyrene is 98 percent air, so even though it contributes less than 1 percent by weight to waste collections, it contributes 30 percent by volume to landfills that are rapidly reaching its capacity limits.

Waste issues are big. But, if you think about litter, you usually have an image of Expanded Polystyrene in your head. However, the issue doesn’t stop with the empty cup or clamshell food container. If you’ve ever held an Expanded Polystyrene container, you know how easy it is to crush. Even when properly disposed, foam containers easily break down into small pieces when compacted in a garbage truck, allowing small pieces to blow away to settle on land and waterways. These small pieces look like food to animals causing animals to starve while their stomachs are filled with polystyrene or other plastics.

Litter issues are huge. But, the health impacts may be even worse. When your hot beverage or to go lunch is served in an Expanded Polystyrene container, the heat causes the product to leach toxic chemicals such as benzene and styrene into your drink and food. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared styrene a very possible human carcinogen (making Expanded Polystyrene the only food packaging item made from a suspected carcinogen); other studies have linked the two chemicals to Parkinson’s Disease as well as Leukemia. No matter how you spin it, you are ingesting a petroleum bi-product (now predominately made from natural gas from hydrofractured wells) every time you consume from these containers when heated.

Courtesy: https://www.wasteadvantage.com

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