NEW YORK—Council will vote today on a bill that would see expanded polystyrene (EPS), commonly known under the brand name Styrofoam, either banned or added to the city’s curbside recycling program.
Three members of the Council’s sanitation and solid waste committee voted unanimously on Dec. 19, 2013, to take the bill to the full Council meeting later in the day.
Council Member Michael Nelson said, “With all due respect to the business that will be impacted… it has been said we drink the coffee for five minutes, it will be there for 500 years… we should have done this a long time ago.”
The current version of the bill would give the city’s sanitation commissioner until Jan. 1, 2015, to determine whether plastic foam is recyclable.
If the commissioner deems plastic foam not recyclable, it will be banned in all city food service establishments on July 1, 2015.
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