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Food

New York Is Free to Resume Its Love Affair with Foam Take-Out Containers

A July 1 ban of polystyrene foam takeout containers, cups, and plates in New York has been overturned by a Supreme Court judge who says that the decision was "arbitrary."
Hilary Pollack
Los Angeles, US
Photo via Flickr user Geoff Peters

Many of New York's signature attributes are food-related. Take its world-renowned bagels, its criminally overpriced street dogs, its delightfully stinky Chinatown markets, or its very own universally adored pizza rat. Dig into its fabulous assortment of cheap dumplings, or revel in its heaps of sushi.

But no matter what it is you're stuffing in your face in the Big Apple, you're now free to take home your leftovers in a squeaky takeout container once more. Mayor Bill de Blasio's ban of all things polystyrene foam has been overturned.

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On July 1, de Blasio successfully banned the use of what's colloquially known as Styrofoam—though it's actually expanded polystyrene foam—cups, plates, boxes, and even packing peanuts following a 2013 decision under the notoriously conscientious Bloomberg administration to get rid of the stuff unless they could find a way to recycle it properly, via an environmentally friendly method at a reasonable cost, within one year.

After all, some 30,000 tons of the foamy packaging is currently sent to landfills annually, and bans are already in place in San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. Businesses wouldn't have faced fines until next year, but many began the process of switching to other plastic- and paper-based materials for their to-go containers.

But then, the Restaurant Action Alliance, along with other restaurant owners, manufacturers, and recycling processors, sued the city under the claim that the packaging could, in fact, be recycled successfully. On Monday, Justice Margaret A. Chan of the state Supreme Court overturned the ban, calling it "arbitrary and capricious" and citing the finding that, as opponents argued, up to 75 percent of the stuff can be rendered into usable recycled material.

Photo via Flickr user kagen33

Photo via Flickr user kagen33

Judge Chan also noted that Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia disregarded potential opportunities to find ways to recycle the foam during the designated review period. Garcia claimed in December that the material was unrecyclable, but 21 different companies have come forwards saying that with improved processing machinery, they're potentially interested in buying the used foam plates, cups, and containers, saving New York some $400,00 a year by recycling them instead of dumping them in a landfill.

How long did the ban last, in total? A mere two and a half months.

Mayoral spokeswoman Ishanee Parikh said in a statement that the de Blasio administration will continue fighting the ruling and attempting to maintain the ban. "These products cause real environmental harm, and we need to be able to prevent nearly 30,000 tons of expanded polystyrene waste from entering our landfills, streets and waterways," she said. Other representatives from Bloomberg's and de Blasio's camps argue that officials have tried for decades to recycle polystyrene foam containers without success.

Eric A. Goldstein, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the New York Times: "There's not a single major city in the nation that has successfully implemented a recycling program for used polystyrene food containers, and the reason is simple: It doesn't make economic sense."

For now, your corner-store coffee will keep warm in its crispy white vessel, and your leftover pad Thai will continue to laze in its polystyrene chamber. But the end could still be nigh.