The General Assembly should act in 2019 to ban disposable food containers made of expanded polystyrene foam as an important step in reining in the plastic pollution crisis.
The benefits of plastic are undeniable – it’s inexpensive, lightweight, easy to produce, and virtually indestructible. Yet this miracle substance, central to every aspect of our lives, has emerged as one of the world’s greatest environmental challenges.
Almost all of the plastic ever produced – nine billion tons – still exists. More than 40% is packaging: bags, bottles, straws, food wrappers, and food containers used just once, then discarded. Most plastic ends up in landfills, incinerators, or in the environment; only 9% has ever been recycled. And despite the growing concern that our planet is overwhelmed with plastic waste, production is skyrocketing – half of the plastic ever manufactured was made in the last 15 years!
One straightforward solution to this crisis is to ban single-use products, such as Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam (commonly referred to as “styrofoam”). EPS foam is easily replaced by sustainable alternatives.
EPS foam is a particularly dangerous material when it gets into the environment.
Because it’s cheap to make and very inexpensive to buy, EPS foam food containers are widely used, and are a common component of the litter stream. Extremely lightweight, it’s easily blown out of trash cans, ultimately ending up in waterways and the ocean. EPS foam is virtually indestructible and doesn’t biodegrade unlike paper products and products made from plant material. Instead, foam breaks into increasingly smaller pieces known as micro-plastics, which become a garbage soup floating on the ocean surface and is virtually impossible to clean up. Hundreds of marine animal species mistake it for food and starve or suffocate to death.
EPS foam is not conventionally recyclable. It’s very difficult to clean and physically fragile, contaminating other, more valuable materials when put into single-stream collection bins at curbside. Most importantly, no markets exist for recycled food-service foam.
An increasing number of communities around the world, including several in Maryland, are successfully enacting bans on EPS foam food containers. There are many alternative, more environmentally friendly products which may be used, with little or no impact on businesses and their customers.
In 2019, the General Assembly should act to end our State’s reliance on one of the worst plastic pollutants in the environment.