MOSCOW (MRC) -- Single-use Styrofoam cups and food containers have been banned in New York city with effect from July 1, 2015, said Buildings, citing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.
The ban is estimated to prevent 30,000 tons of landfilled waste annually. Food establishments, stores, and manufacturers in New York City may not possess, sell, or offer to customers plastic foam containers as of July 1 and thus will be seeking alternative materials. In addition, the city will also prohibit the sale of loose-fill polystyrene - commonly called packing peanuts.
Chemical manufacturers and foam food and beverage container makers had fought the ban, arguing that expanded polystyrene can indeed be recycled.
As MRC informed previously, in October 2014, The American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA), one of the key opposition groups which has cast the bill as job killer and cash-grab by grocers groups, plans to take the matter to the voters themselves this November.
Much like the 11th hour retooling of the bill that got it through the state legislature, Brown waited until the last possible day to sign the measure into law. Under the new law, single-use plastic bags will be prohibited as of July 1, 2015, and Californians will pay a minimum of 10 cents for each reusable plastic or recycled paper bag at grocery stores. In 2016, the ban will extend to pharmacies and liquor stores.
MRC