HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0664.040 2014-2016 PlEMc
C-664
support for Bill 140 banning polystyrene foam food containers and service Ware
for Hawai'i County Council Environmental Management Committee
1 pm Tuesday, February 16, 2016, Kona chambers -
from Cory Harden, Hilo
Thank you to Margaret Wille for introducing this bill. =a i
It's up to the counties now, because polystyrene bills taken to the State legislature in the past two.years =+�
have failed. (1)
The organic compound styrene can "reasonably be anticipated to be a human carcinogen", according to
the National Toxicology Program and National Research Council (2)and it can leach out of polystyrene
food containers. (2)So it's hazardous when you use it, and hazardous again after you throw it away.
Can it be recycled?Well, New York City couldn't figure out any cost-effective way to recycle single-use
expanded polystyrene containers. (3)
So polystyrene ends up in landfills. There it"remains intact for hundreds of years and releases
pollutants..."(4)Organic material in the waste stream may be rendered unusable for anaerobic digestion
or composting,after polystyrene foam waste breaks into tiny pieces and mixes in. (5)
Lots of polystyrene becomes litter that"...breaks into little pieces and is nearly impossible to clean up." (4)
Polystyrene"is one of the primary components of marine debris". (4) It can poison animals or cause them
to starve with a belly full of indigestible material. One turtle found near Hawai'i died because it was so full
of polystyrene,plastic bags, and fishing line that it was too buoyant to dive. (6)
There are alternatives to polystyrene, already in use in hundreds of places where local governments have
banned polystyrene. (1) Last year the city of Seattle said the number of compostable packaging products
jumped from about 70 to about 700 in four years. (5)
Examples of alternatives:
• Dunkin' Donuts is testing a double-wall paper cup and recyclable polypropylene cup. (5)
• Plant-based food service products are made from potatoes, corn, bamboo, and wood. (7)
• For mushroom packaging, you put materials like cotton and rice hulls into molds, inject them with
mushroom spores, and just let them grow for a week or so. (2) •
Businesses worry about the cost of alternatives to polystyrene. But what is the cost to taxpayers of
landfilling all then polystyrene from hundreds of food providers?And the cost of dealing with the toxic
chemicalspolystyrene
waste releases into the environment?
Please support this ban. Mahalo.
Notes
1 Wille: Polystyrene containers must go, Hawai'i Tribune-Herald, February 14,2016
2 Will polystyrene cancer concerns prompt brands to change?The Guardian,August 27, 2014,
http://www.theguard ian.com/sustainable-business/2014/aug/27/styrene-carcinogen-brandspolvstyrene-
foam-food-packaging, accessed February 2016.
3 New York City Bans Expanded Polystyrene Food Containers, Chemical&Engineering News, January
12, 2015, http:/Icen.acs.org/articles/93Iweb/2015/01/New-York-City-Bans-Expanded.html, accessed
February 2016.
Comm. No
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Ref. Date ' 16 "2016
7: 10
‘1:1;
4 Serving Up a Better School Plate, Natural Resources Defense Council website,
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mbrown/serving up a better school pla.html, accessed February 2016
5 New York restaurants scramble for alternatives after city bans foam packaging, The Guardian, January
22, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/ian/22/new-vork-stvrofoam-ban-foam-
packaging-food-restaurants, accessed February 2016
6 The Ballooning Problem of Plastic Litter,
http://wripmoregon.govidsl/SSNERR/docs/EFS/EFS12balloon.pdf, accessed February 2016.
7 What We Could Use In Food Service Instead of Plastic Foam, Civil Beat, October 5, 2011,
http://www.civilbeat.com/2011/10/13115-what-we-could-use-in-food-service-instead-of-plastic-foam/,
accessed February 2016.
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