CaseyJones
11-21-2013, 06:27 PM
http://nypost.com/2013/11/21/mayor-bloomberg-wants-to-ban-styrofoam/
Before he leaves office next month, Mayor Bloomberg is ordering one more takeout — Styrofoam.
At the request of the mayor, the City Council’s Sanitation Committee is holding a hearing Monday on a bill to prohibit the use and sale of plastic foam cups and plates that have long been ubiquitous in delis, bodegas and even school cafeterias.
Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway will testify on behalf of the administration, which first proposed the ban in the summer and is now rushing to get it enacted into law.
Sanitation officials say plastic foam food containers add 23,000 tons of trash a year to landfills, The city’s total total waste stream is more than three million tons.
The officials say the ban is warranted because foam containers are non-biodegradable, can’t be recycled and spoil the environment.
But opponents claim the move is just another Bloomberg Nanny initiative that will hike consume prices with more costly alternative products,
The bill to outlaw Styrofoam was introduced by Brooklyn Councilman Lew Fidler and has the support of Speaker Christine Quinn and Letitia James, the Public Advocate-elect who chairs the Council’s sanitation panel.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio proposed a similar measure as public advocate in 2010, according to his office website.
Bloomberg’s office said the foam ban is a no-brainer.
Before he leaves office next month, Mayor Bloomberg is ordering one more takeout — Styrofoam.
At the request of the mayor, the City Council’s Sanitation Committee is holding a hearing Monday on a bill to prohibit the use and sale of plastic foam cups and plates that have long been ubiquitous in delis, bodegas and even school cafeterias.
Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway will testify on behalf of the administration, which first proposed the ban in the summer and is now rushing to get it enacted into law.
Sanitation officials say plastic foam food containers add 23,000 tons of trash a year to landfills, The city’s total total waste stream is more than three million tons.
The officials say the ban is warranted because foam containers are non-biodegradable, can’t be recycled and spoil the environment.
But opponents claim the move is just another Bloomberg Nanny initiative that will hike consume prices with more costly alternative products,
The bill to outlaw Styrofoam was introduced by Brooklyn Councilman Lew Fidler and has the support of Speaker Christine Quinn and Letitia James, the Public Advocate-elect who chairs the Council’s sanitation panel.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio proposed a similar measure as public advocate in 2010, according to his office website.
Bloomberg’s office said the foam ban is a no-brainer.