CALABASAS, CALIFORNIA CONSIDERS STYROFOAM BAN

     The City, which recently gained national noteriety for an anti-smoking ordinance, now is considering legislation to ban restaurants and City contractors from dispensing beverages in Styrofoam cups (not biodegradable, etcetera).  You can read the Staff Report (and related documents) regarding the possible legislation at City of Calabasas website (item 3 of tonight's City Council Agenda), referring to Styrofoam by its more arcane name "Polystyrene").

     Of course, in the "grass is always greener" or "you don't really want what you wish for" mode, this Blog points out (another cliche) the law of unintended consequences.  What would substitute for Styrofoam?  Plastic?  Say no more.

     What about good ol' paper?  Well, have you ever noticed that you usually need at least two paper cups to insulate your coffee instead of the single cup of (better insulated) Styrofoam?  There go the forests.  Plus, the poor insulating qualities of paper cups may lead to more personal injuries from consumers spilling the beverage in reaction to the hot liquid inside.

     Stay tuned.

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[Auth]

Blue insulation foam, yes, but it will burn rlaley fast, you need to work fast.White styrofoam with a course little beads in them, or like a coffee cup, no. It will shred and fly apart if it doesn't melt first.I use the blue foam all the time, never a router but a jig saw and it worked fine. But it is so soft, you can use a pocket knife and some course sand paper to do most work.

[Bagus]

It is important to chglaenle students with introductions of uncommon artistic materials and to the freedom one has when choosing materials in contemporary art. Even if the luxury of high quality materials are available for students it is essential to open up material use to the imagination. With my students I often ask them where they find their art materials when they are not in an art class. For example, the other day we were working with wire and I questioned students where they could find wire outside of the classroom(without buying it). We discussed building wire sculptures from found wire hangers, paper clips, and old electrical wire.

[Robert Cargeeg]

We have a solution to the Styrofoam waste problem. As I read the comments above we all agree the EPS is the best product for what it is used for. Western Recycling Technologies, owned by Robert cargeeg and Paul Buchi are the distributors for a Styrofoam reduction machine. We will reduce the waste by 90%, we then recycle the condensed block into different garden products and bio fuel. These Machines are as low as 9,700.00 dollars so a very cost effective solution with a one year pay back in most cases. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

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it’s oil use is minimal (less than 0.01% of US total use) and the product is good enough to where one does the job, not two or three like paper.

[Karen Stephenson]

I've been following this arguement for a while and in fact I was just at the Green festival in DC where they were using recycled paper plates. I burnt my hand and had I stood around looking for a table any longer my ten dollar veggie meal would have been on the floor.
What I realized at the festival and as I've followed this story is that policy makers are putting in bans instead of doing a little research on what is out there and what other countries are doing. In Europe they recycle everything and there are recycling bins everywhere. There is no burning and no littering. There is a machine called the styromelt that reduces styrofoam by 95%. There are no emissions, the stryofoam does not have to be cleaned first or really separated out. The resulting brick can be used as fuel. steel companies in Europe are using them as replacement for coal. As they burn hotter and cleaner. Schools, Stadiums, malls could all be no waste buildings. The bricks can also be turned into diesel. It takes petroleum to make paper. So lets think about it. Use the plastics and styrofoam for what its good for but close the loop and turn it back into it's natural state.

There is also a plastics machine that reduces all plastic including pvc by 98%. Again the bricks can be used for fuel. Even if someone had to put these in a landfill they don't need to be covered both bricks are odor free and sterile. They can be stored indefinitely. The life of landfills could be extented by decades, the price for cities for dumping would be greatly reduced and tons of businesses could be no waste. Just something to think about. www.teampeace.com

[Jerri Campbell]

Toxicology studies show that styrene, a possible carcinogen and endocrine disruptor, migrates out of polystyrene into food and drink. The rate of migration is dependent upon temperature and fat content. And it takes as little as ten minutes of exposure to see movement. Regardless of its environmental impact, this product should not come in contact with food! Avoid styrofoam and plastic #6 for your health if no other reason.

[James Rubenol]

Bravo! I’m glad someone has finally at least started to point out the realities of these kinds of bans. I’m from southern CA, quite a few cities around me are proposing to ban polystyrene (Styrofoam) because of all the harm that it does, specifically to our oceans. The main complaint is that Styrofoam doesn’t biodegrade and because of it’s characteristics as a product a lot of it ends up in our oceans, injuring animals and the like. To me banning a product that is perfect for what it is used for doesn’t make sense when there are so many alternative ways to take care of the problem of litter….maybe starting with punishing those littering instead of the industry as a whole. The fact that Styrofoam is 97%+ air makes it fantastic in terms of its low use of non renewable materials, Styrofoam doesn’t need mass deforestation, it’s oil use is minimal (less than 0.01% of US total use) and the product is good enough to where one does the job, not two or three like paper. Furthermore recent developments in a new kind of bacteria promises that polystyrene will soon be easily turned into a biodegradable product, here is a link for anyone interested: http://www.livescience.com/technology/060307_styrofoam_cup.html

Cheers,
James Rubenol