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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will propose a ban on Styrofoam, the substance commonly used for take-out food containers that is almost impossible to recycle.
The mayor who has already targeted fat, sugar and salt in the city will turn to extruded polystyrene foam, saying it clogs up landfills, does not biodegrade and might harm human health.
Bloomberg will raise the proposal in his final State of the City speech on Thursday. The city provided reporters an advance text of the speech on Wednesday.
Bloomberg, in his 12th year as mayor, has made public health and sustainability hallmarks of his three terms in office, and he has taken aim repeatedly at the fast-food industry - most recently in his controversial plan to bar the sale of large portions of sugary soda, which goes into effect next month.
Styrofoam, he says, should go the way of lead-based paint, which the city banned from residential use in 1960. An estimated 20,000 tons of Styrofoam enter the city's waste stream each year, and it can add an estimated $20 per ton to the cost of recycling because it needs to be removed from the recycling stream, the city said.
"After all, we can live without it. We may live longer without it. And the doggie bag will survive just fine," the text of Bloomberg's speech says.
Dow Chemical Co, which makes Styrofoam, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Similar bans have been adopted in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
The plan was likely to meet opposition from small businesses, since alternatives to Styrofoam tend to cost between two and five times as much.
"As this proposal moves forward, we hope that the concerns of the small businesses it affects - like cost increases - will factor in at least as heavily as environmental concerns," said Andrew Moesel, a spokesman for the New York Restaurant Association.
While Bloomberg's aggressive campaigns have won him plaudits from some, others have dubbed him a "nanny" mayor and said his ideas limit choice and pre-empt individual responsibility.
During his first term, he pushed through a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, which, despite an initially rocky reception from New Yorkers, is now enormously popular and has inspired similar bans in cities around the world.
Next up was a ban on trans fats, found in Little Italy cannoli and fast-food french fries, and a dictate that fast-food restaurants post calorie information in large type on menu boards.
Last year, Bloomberg said restaurants and takeaway food shops could no longer sell sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces (47 cl).
Sugar-sweetened drinks are a significant source of extra calories in the U.S. diet and closely linked with weight gain, which often accompanies serious and costly illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
The soft drinks industry is challenging the ban, which is due to begin in March, calling it an unconstitutional overreach that burdens small businesses and infringes upon personal liberty.
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A lot of people dont know this about styrofoam, but it is produced so much cheaper than paper or plastic products. This means you can make them with a lot less energy and it feels like the mayor hasnt looked at every angle yet. you can make probably 1000 strofoam cups at the cost of 10 paper cups. If we can find a way to recycle them more efficiently, that would be a more proper way to handle the problem instead of stopping cold turkey. There is too much at stake for small business owners. He should at least give the private sector a chance at solving this problem instead of crying to 'big brother' for help.
Just think about this, is it really necessary to give me a styrofoam container if I am eating in the restarant? Is my food going to get that cold if they just wrap it in paper? Is it really necessary for the deli's where I eat my lunch to to put my sandwich in a plastic container? Just wrap it in paper. I think restaurants/delis/diners could use some common sense when serving up food. They would save money on containers and our environment would benefit. Bloomie is extreme, but he is on the right track.
better yet just have them hand it to you straight from their hands they just used to wipe their ass.
@melly Maybe wrapping your left-overs in paper works for you, but don't complain when when your duck-sauce stains your car seats on the way home. What about all the take-out places who use Styrofoam so we can have a hot meal when we get home? Wax coated cardboard does not work,and is not recyclable.
Wax coated cardboard works fine for me in containing sauces etc. It takes 50+ years to degrade, but considering Styrofoam and plastic take 1 million years, that is acceptable.
Someone should styrofoam his mouth !
look you got to pay the cost one way or the other.... if you don't use disposable containers, you use more durable material: ceramic, glass, metal, or even plastic (melamine) containers. while you claim you reuse them, some won't be and they would still be trashed... then consider the cost of producing them, from the material and the energy required to make them and the transport of these heavier durable items. then for reusing them you must wash them using water and possibly lots of soap/chemicals/disinfectant... nobody added up those costs and assume simply removing styrofoam will help environment.... i beg to differ... and the same argument goes for the disposable flexible plastic bag too..... i would say the net effect of these stupid bans versus letting what the economics has favored as more cost effective to the system would be nill or even negative to the environment. these styrofoams and cheap plastics have been proven to have the advantage in one area: the low cost of producing them, which means it's got to be lower energy used per unit produced, there is no other way. and if you use less energy already, doesnt that count as environmentally friendly? yet nobody counted this positive factor and focus on the trash side.
just because you find them clogging the wastewater system doesn't mean they're the bad guys.... would you be happier if the more durable reusable shopping bags and the melamine cups and plates are in the waste stream instead? coz they'll end up there too, mark my words.
is that a cost you counted as well the cost of clogging water drains and such from plastic? what about the cost to fish? we eat those....
@Tao You are right, in a way. Most intelligent people stopped eating fish when the mercury levels began to rise. As with seafood, the Gulf oil spills/disasters did the trick. My take on the main problem is with government, allowing the disposal of garbage, millions of tons every year, into our oceans. We all, the whole world, need to BAN this practice today. Save our oceans and our planet. Thanks for listening, peace.
In terms of fossil fuels burned and the economics of it, yes, I'm sure Styrofoam wins short term. But consider the long term - that Styrofoam cup will be around for a million years. Humans have a serious problem with generating a lot of waste without knowing what to do with it - the US literally has floating barges of waste roaming around with nowhere to go. If Styrofoam can be recycled into insulating material for homes or something useful, great, but you can't expect to keep on throwing stuff out and living in your own waste with no consequences.
See what happens when you let a liberal idiot start banning things? Yep, I see that crime went WAYYYYYYY down in Manhattan now that guns are out of the picture :l Sunshine and Rainbows. Gay Pride...
Well, ...butreally, New York has become one of the safest big cities in America -- thanks to Former Mayor Guilliani doing what they said was impossible.
Will let the NYC people make their comments. If they all need a Daddy Mayor on telling them what they can and cannot do, so be it. All of us parents had to make rules at times for our children. Guess the Mayor feels the NYC people are his children. Guess next on his list is no Birthday Cakes allowed in NYC because of the sugar contents. Do I care, not really. NYC travels are not in my plans.
Bloomberg is typical of power mad govt. Why does he feel he can dictate to any of the citizenry. are we not responsible for our own diets , our own businesses and our selves ? If I want to drink soda out of a large styrofoam cup, who does he think he is to tell me I cannot or should not? What a pompous jerk!
Many people make poor choices. Sometimes those with clear, rational, thinking minds think for those who can't. This isn't a world where we all just do what we want. There are consequences to our actions (poor health, filthy air and oceans).
In a perfect world, yes individuals would be responsible for making good choices about their own health, education, behavior towards others etc etc. Unfortunately, that does not happen. Enter government. There's definitely a line somewhere, but banning Styrofoam (or even large soda containers) isn't it. We don't want to be North Korea, but we don't want to be China either - there has got to be a balance.
sorry billy... I don't wnat to be anywhere near either of those 2 balances. We had a line it was called the USA. The move to socialism isn't my idea of what our country was founded to be.
the logic being that people who live in large concentrations are absolved of personal responsibility and free thought. let somebody else decide for them, after all why bother when somebody else can do it for you.
is that why people outside of the cities are the way they are?
Ban the dumping of garbage in our oceans. Save our children and our oceans.
Couldn't agree more.
Like smoking Styrofoam should have been banned years ago. It was taken out in many California restaurants fifteen years ago...because Cal Environmentalists were ahead of the game. It is horrible to environment and is responsible for a Texas sized garbage floating in the Atlantic...that gets swallowed by fish and birds (that choke on Styrofoam and die)...blessing human beings no doubt (sarcasm). Human race karma is not that good at the moment...so any environmental move, social move and political move to ban Styrofoam is good karma and good science. It should have been banned years ago!
Developing countries should do the same.
@Use I agree that "disposable" type cups and other items can be replaced with paper, but some items used by restaurants, ie. meal sized take-out containers, are needed to retain heat during transport. Recycling Styrofoam is the best solution in combination with a world wide ban on the dumping of garbage/trash into our oceans. As for that floating plastic island, I heard that it is now the size of China.
Hmm... do you ban sidewalks because that's where most pedestrians get killed? I would not be surprised if the idiots in CA will do just that soon! That doesn't mean it's a good thing.
Littering and use of styrofoam are 2 different things. Don't confuse the 2.
I take it that your name is what you aspire to, but never quite make it.
chief - if pizza can be transported by delivery drivers in a cardboard box inside reusable insulated containers, I don't see why the same can't be done for other types of food delivery. If you're just getting a doggie bag for leftovers, it doesn't matter if it's getting cold, it'll probably be going in the fridge when you get home anyway.
hmm... next ban...delivery drivers. Imagine the waste of fuel, the exhaust fumes saved in New York...
next ban... UPS and Fed Ex... imagine the savings in fuel and exhaust fumes. Then ban the USPS... and Air Lines... ban until it hurts.
@starr, and once that cardboard box gets all grease soaked from the pizza its no longer recyclable
Styrofoam is not difficult to recycle. People knew how to recycle styrofoam since the late 60s!
Long overdue.
Well said Mr Mayor.
Keep up the good work.
Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!! About time ... styrofoam is one of the worst things on the planet, folks. NEVER, EVER degrades ... its horrific. Good for you, sir, way past time the ENTIRE planet banned it. Way past time.
Good for him. Styrofoam is a menace. It sucks as a material, and its a major pollution problem. The stuff doesn't break down for something like 50,000 years, and its toxic. It can actually kill you under the right circumstances.
Its time to dump the foam. Its terrible for the environment. And its an awful material to have food and drink served in. I don't know about you, but I avoid Styrofoam products as much as possible. Especially fast food that's served in it. I can always taste a chemical taste, when foods been put in a container made of it.
Good riddance.
New York's major has lost it.
Should he be thinking about problems like the homeless, violent crime, and traffic flow?
I'm thikin' it's time to ban the NYC Mayor!!
Ban Mayor Bloomberg!!!!
Styrofoam is in all the stuff we ship, like tv's computers, I know of nothing that is ship out without Styrofoam in the box. Good luck Mayor with that, you know Mayor that new 90" TV you just bought, what did you do with that Styrofoam that came in the box with it?
Yes. And led-based paint was thought to be harmless. Under your assumption, because it is used to ship materials and to make coffee cups and plates it must be healthy becuase it was made by a corporation who would never put out a product that is harmful. Think critically my friend.
It's called using bubble wrap in place of the styrofoam.
pdaohio.org
Where did you get the idea that post was saying anything at all about Styrofoam being harmless? The entire point of the post was that styrofoam comes into the city from outside the city in very large quantities and that there is no way to stop it. Do you think a guy in Japan shipping out a TV cares if NYC has a ban on Styrofoam? That was a nice straw man you beat up there. I'll give you another one. We know that ultraviolet light is harmful. So let's ban it. Sounds great. The only problem is that the sun doesn't care if we ban it. You can argue the point until the end of time, but it won't change the fact that banning UV light won't get rid of UV light. That's pretty much the point the OP was making. It had nothing to do with what is healthy for you.
come on NY can't you get rid of this guy
"New York City mayor wants to ban Styrofoam"
We need to ban government idiots who want to micromanage our lives.
So, you would rather have corporations like Dow Chemical manage your life for you. Government is not the problem in our democracy. Corporations are.
hio, if you don't want to use styrofoam don't use it. Don't you go thinking you have the right to tell me I can't use it.
Use it all you want. Make a house out of it. Wear it for clothing. Eat it. Add some DDT to it with a nice layer of lead.
No... in this case it is the government. There is no huge corporate push to start a massive use of styrafoam in New York - there is a mayor wanting to control the lives of New Yorkers.
What else needs to be banned? taxis because they cause smog, newspapers because they cause litter, loud noises because they cause hearing loss and noise pollution, bright lights at night because they can cause eye strain and headaches, trees in central park because their leaves fall on the walkways and can be slippery, cats and dogs because some people are allergic to cats and dogs make a lot of noise (see loud noises above), .......
Chris, my community certainly has regulations about vehicle emissions, littering, failure to recycle, loud noises, where trees can be placed in landscaping so they don't fall on the streets/sidewalks due to weather, and has policies about number/breeds of dogs that you can own. Regulation is nothing new. You have the option of moving elsewhere if you don't like a community's regulations. It sounds like a lot of rules, but we enjoy our quiet, clean community and our property values reflect that!
Smart move by the New York mayor.
Hey chief. If they don't dump their garbage in the ocean. Pennsylvania will be stuck with all of NYs and NJ's trash. We get enough of it already. NY is a big state. Let them build their own landfills.
Ban right wing nut jobs! Its obvious, RWNJs are anti-human. Anything that is harmful to humans they are all for. Guns, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, wars, plastic, cigarettes, obesity, the list goes on......... Get rid of RWNJs and this society would be a lot better off.
This society would be a lot better off if we banned people like you who would rather go into hysterics instead of speaking and acting rationally.
Good for him. As far as I know asking people to voluntarily do the right thing doesn't usually work in the aggregate. And that is why we have to have laws for everything.
Bloomberg is simply an example that rich doesnt necessarily mean intelligent....