Posted on 09/23/2015 8:55:17 AM PDT by dennisw
Packing peanuts just got a reprieve.
A Manhattan judge Tuesday overturned Mayor de Blasio’s ban on plastic foam — commonly known as Styrofoam — trashing the administration’s environmental initiative to reduce waste in the city’s landfills.
In July, the city banned all businesses in the five boroughs from using plastic foam containers after Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia determined that the squeaky packaging couldn’t be recycled if it was soiled with food.
SMALL BUSINESSES WANT DE BLASIO TO AX STYROFOAM REFORM
But experts hired by the Restaurant Action Alliance said that assessment was garbage, and dished up enough conflicting evidence to make a judge lift the ban.
“The commissioner’s concern is not justified given abundant evidence showing a viable and growing market for not just clean EPS (expanded polystyrene foam) but post consumer EPS material,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Margaret Chan ruled.
She noted that plastic foam recycling is “beyond the pilot program stages or still paddling in untested waters.”
The city may appeal the decision.
“We disagree with the ruling,” said Ishanee Parikh, a de Blasio spokeswoman.
“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. We are reviewing our options to keep the ban in effect.”
City schools alone were throwing away 800,000 foam lunch trays a day, officials said. New York had been the largest city in America to outlaw polystyrene foam.
Restaurant groups were happy with the ruling.
“We’re very gratified by the judge’s decision and we now look forward to working with the city to implement a comprehensive recycling program,” said Randy Mastro, the attorney who represented the alliance.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
If you live in NYC and like your coffee with a Styrofoam taste, you are in luck!!
““We disagree with the ruling,” said Ishanee Parikh, a de Blasio spokeswoman. “
Does anyone have a plain old name anymore?
.
is it that difficult to seperate styrofaom out of the trash?
Paper gets “recycled” whats so difficult about collecting styrofoam?
had Wilhelm not given this any thought???
foam lunch trays in school??? what happened to the hard plastic trays?
Geez we have become a deranged society
A tip for New Yorkers only!!!
You can pour lead shot into the bottom of the Styrofoam cups fill it with your favorite beverage and keep it from being blown away in the wind.
“City schools alone were throwing away 800,000 foam lunch trays a day”
Hmmm.. seems that a reusable, washable lunch tray, like the ones used in cafeterias around the world for decades, and in most schools until recently would solve that problem... sigh.
But no, lets not require kids or employees to use silverware and real trays, lets just buy throw away kind and then blame the throw away kind for our problems.
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ishanee-parikh/23/793/838
What she looks like in case you are curious. She is prolly being paid at least 110 thousand a year. Must be some NYC hacks girlfriend.
With what equipment did Wilhelm think?
He is missing the main ingredient.
It’s nice that, every once in a while, someone stands up to His Royal Highness Emperor de Blasio.
Gee,a black woman.
What a surprise.
.
“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.”
Controversy aside for a minute, I have a VERY difficult time trying to visualize 30,000 tons of Styrofoam. That’s 60,000,000 pounds of the stuff. Given how Styrofoam weighs next to nothing, and it takes a very large volume to make a pound, if all 60,000,000 lbs of it were placed in one pile, there’d be a new mountain to be named in NYC.
City’s landfills my a**. They ship their trash upstate.
Are you saying they may have inflated the #s to justify their position?! NEVER! lol
Styrofoam burns and produces heat. What is the problem? You don’t like coal, gasoline, or propane?
“That’s Racess”
Spit take!!!!
I’d bet the farm that the reason the schools went to foam was because some do good meddler calculated how much water was going down the drain with the washing of reusable trays.
Foam is for takeout meals. I am fairly sure it is more cost effective for any restaurant to wash dishes. Fast food places excluded.
So restaurants can get their act together but schools that serve a thousand or more students will not and use foam dinnerware
See the very nice lunches French school children get and served on plates of course
http://www.wimp.com/schoollunches/
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