Mayor Bill De Blasio is expected to follow through today on the long-in-the-works ban of plastic foam containers. After a year of trying to prove that plastic foam containers are biodegradable, industry lobbyists have apparently lost to science.
The initiative to ban foam takeout containers began two years ago when Mayor Mike Bloomberg put forth the proposal in his “State of the City” address. Manufacturers from Dart Container Corporation and the American Chemical Council were given a year to prove that their product was actually a friend of the environment. That grace period is now over.
According to Eater:
The ban will go into effect July 1, at which time all vendors are expected to stop using styrofoam. But the city won’t actually start enforcing the law for a whole year, until January of 2016. And even then, businesses that make less than $500,000 in revenue can apply for exemptions.
That would mean restaurants have plenty of opportunity to finish off their supplies of containers and a no-brainer environmental initiative will further help the city.
(Photo: Wikipedia)
