According to an article in the SF Examiner, a proposal to ban the sale of polystyrene foam products and containers in San Francisco is garnering endorsements from several city commissions and environmental groups.
The proposal was put forth by London Breed, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, as an expansion of the 2007 ban of polystyrene foam takeout containers in restaurants. Aaron Peskin, the supervisor who proposed this ban, is co-sponsoring the expansion.
“If we’ve successfully stopped restaurants from using it, we shouldn’t have stores selling it to the public and going out and having picnics in the parks or on the beach using Styrofoam plates and cups that get blown into the ocean,” Jack Macy, a zero-waste coordinator for the Department of Health, told the SF Examiner.
Although the proposal has been modified to aid small businesses in the transitionary period from polystyrene foam containers, the polystyrene foam industry argues that the material is recyclable.
“The vast majority [of polystyrene foam] comes into the city from somewhere else in the country,” attorney Trenton Norris, on behalf of the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Alliance, told the paper. “San Francisco is not addressing that in any way whatsoever with this particular ordinance.”
Macy pointed out that the fragility of polystyrene foam disallows it from inclusion in Recology’s curbside recycling program.
“It’s just a nightmare to deal with,” Macy told the SF Examiner. “It’s very hard to recover. It’s cost-prohibitive.”
Proposed polystsyrene ban in San Francisco gains support
Industry opposes possible measure, as city commissions voice their approval.