Provides for a prohibition on the use of certain disposable food service ware

4 Co-sponsors

• Ruth Hassell-Thompson
• José M. Serrano
• Daniel L. Squadron
• Andrea Stewart-Cousins

BILL NUMBER:S3444A

Title of bill

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to prohibiting the use of certain food packaging and plastic food service ware

Purpose

To prohibit the use of food service ware that contains polystyrene foam by food service providers, including state departments, contractors, and lessees of the state, as well as restaurants and retail food vendors. Polystyrene, is used as a means to package prepared food that can be "taken out" of food establishments by consumers. This bill would require food service providers to use alternate products that are compostable or recyclable, unless no affordable alternative exists. The Department of Environmental Conservation would create a list of affordable compostable or recyclable products available.

Summary of provisions

Article 27 is amended to add a new Title 22 Food Service Waste Reduction.

27-2201 - Definitions. Including: "affordable" which means purchasable at a maximum cost of 15 percent more than the purchase cost of the non-biodegradable, non-recyclable alternative, "compostable" meaning that all materials in the product or package will break down in a safe and timely manner and "recyclable" meaning material that can be sorted, cleansed and reconstituted using available collect ion programs to manufacture a new product.

27-2203 Prohibited disposable food service ware. Retail food venders and municipal facility food service providers, municipal contractors and lessees shall not sell prepared food in disposable food service ware that contains polystyrene foam.

27-2205 - Required compostable or recyclable disposable food service ware. All food vendors using any disposable food service ware shall use a suitable, affordable alternative compostable or recyclable product unless there is no suitable, affordable compostable or recyclable product available. The Commission of Environmental Conservation will adopt a list of suitable, affordable, compostable or recyclable alternatives for each produce type.

27-2207 - Powers of municipalities will include the creation of regulations, ordinances or laws to implement and enforce this title.

71-2730 - Enforcement of provisions will be the responsibility of the municipality. A first violation will result in a written warning and any subsequent violation will result in a monetary fine.

Justification

Polystyrene foam is a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum, a quickly disappearing commodity. Each year Americans throwaway 25,000,000 polystyrene foam cups, or 1,369 tons of polystyrene foam product every day. A single polystyrene foam cup can take up to 500 years to fully disintegrate.

Polystyrene foam is a notorious pollutant that is very difficult to recycle due to its light weight and low scrap value. It is generally not accepted in curbside programs, is seldom able to be reused, takes up a considerable amount of space in landfills, and takes a very long time to fully decompose. Due to the physical properties of polystyrene foam, the United States Environmental Protection Agency states "that such materials can have a serious impact on human health, wildlife, and the aquatic environment" because the product breaks down and can clog waterways, or be mistaken for food by wildlife.

One of the components of polystyrene foam is styrene, a known hazardous substance which was placed on the U.S. Health Department's list of carcinogens in 2011. Many people do not realize that when they re-heat food in a polystyrene foam product using a microwave, toxins may be released into their food.

This bill would address the environmental impacts of polystyrene foam while allowing for exceptions in cases where there is no viable alternative product of comparable cost.

Fiscal impact on the state

Undetermined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect one year from the date after it shall have become law.