The New York City has barred food service establishments, stores and manufacturers from possessing, selling or using single service Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam articles or polystyrene loose fill packaging.
The ban that has been imposed after the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) determined that EPS Foam cannot be recycled will be effective from 1 July 2015.
Owing to the ban, manufacturers and stores may not sell or offer single-use foam items such as cups, plates, trays, or clamshell containers in the city.
The sale of polystyrene loose fill packaging like packing peanuts has also been banned.
Speaking about the regulation, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said: "These products cause real environmental harm and have no place in New York City. We have better options, better alternatives, and if more cities across the country follow our lead and institute similar bans, those alternatives will soon become more plentiful and will cost less.
"By removing nearly 30,000 tons of expanded polystyrene waste from our landfills, streets and waterways, today's announcement is a major step towards our goal of a greener, greater New York City."
The decision was taken after considering environmental effectiveness, economic feasibility, and safety for employees of DSNY and Sims Municipal Recycling, the city's recycling processor.
DSNY collected close to 28,500 tonnes of EPS in 2014, out of which, around 90% is from single-use food service products like cups, trays and containers.
The presence of EPS foam in waste stream has a detrimental effect on the city's organic collection programme as during the collection process, foam can break down into small pieces, mixing with and contaminating organic material, thereby rendering it unmarketable for anaerobic digestion or composting.
More than 70 cities including Washington, DC, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Albany, and Seattle have already banned the usage of EPS.
Image: Expanded polystyrene packaging. Photo: courtesy of Acdx.
