New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday the city will ban plastic foam containers from use starting July 1.
The ban was first proposed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg last year. According to the
Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg's idea will become a reality this summer.
Sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia told the Times the ban came after the city studied whether disposable cups, trays, and containers were biodegradable. Turns out they are not, and the ban was enacted.
"We want to be able to make [a] change in New York City to make us more resilient and more sustainable," Garcia told The Times. "We really need to identify things that there are alternatives for that are environmentally sound, and rid ourselves of those materials that are not recyclable and will not have a future life."
The Times reported that New Yorkers discarded 28,000 tons of plastic foam waste last year.
Two other cities — Portland, Oregon, and Seattle — have similar laws in place. And more than 70 California cities restrict the use of plastic foam containers, which restaurants typically use for take-out food.
"We have better options, better alternatives, and if more cities across the country follow our lead and institute similar bans, those alternatives will soon become more plentiful and will cost less," de Blasio said in a statement.
After Bloomberg proposed the ban last year,
New Yorkers backed it by more than 2-to-1.
"Styrofoam increases the cost of recycling by as much as $20 per ton because it has to be removed," Bloomberg said at the time. "Something we know is environmentally destructive, that is costing taxpayers money, and that is easily replaceable, I think, is something we can do without."
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