Mayor Bloomberg of New York, after banning salt, large soft drinks, and kittens, has now proposed banning Styrofoam take-out containers.
All Chinese restaurants in the city will most assuredly close.
Since Styrofoam MAY be hazardous to our health, it is something that must go the way of lead paint. (I'm not kidding. He actually made that analogy.)
It's been a long time since I lived in NYC, but the Chinese restaurants where I live use paper containers for rice and plastic for the meals. However, a lot of non-Chinese restaurants still use styrofoam.
When you think about, it's not such a bad idea for reasons other than health. We use the plastic containers from Chinese takeout to store leftovers from the meals we cook at home. We keep them around until they eventually crack. I also use them around the shop for small parts, etc. Any styrofoam we get ends up in the garbage and then the landfill. At least the plastic containers get used for a period of time, after which they are put into the recycling bin. We can't recycle styrofoam food containers.
There's bound to be some environmental upside to eliminating styrofoam and going to paper and plastic since plastic is reusable and both paper and plastic are recyclable.
Per DerbyDad03:
And I am guessing that there is some science on the advisability of using styrofoam.... not that I care that much... but Bloomberg is no dummy and I'll bet he is basing his ideas on something pretty solid.
You must not be burning the recycle there.
The only thing they take out here is glass and metal. I am not sure what happens to the glass but metal is money.
For our weekly collection, we put clear/green/brown glass bottles, plastics # 1 - 7, metal cans and lids in one recycling bin container and just about any type of paper, cardboard, magazines, etc. in another.
There is also a drop off location where you can drop off anything from appliances to mercury to sneakers to wire coat hangers.
For hazardous waste (gas, chemicals, etc.) you have to make an appointment. I've had to schedule appointments over a month in advance and then wait in line for over an hour just to drop off a couple of gallons of nasty stuff. I wish it was easier. Based on the schedule and the lines, I know that a lot of people follow the rules, but I'll bet that a large number of people don't for the very same reasons.
We have single stream recycling, one big barrel that the truck picks up. They manually pluck out the aluminum and glass, the steel is magnetically separated and they burn the rest.
Anything made of metal will disappear within a day if you set it on the curb (appliances etc) they have a special pickup for things the scrappers won't take (TVs and such)
DerbyDad03 wrote in news:097cdd10-dc39-4455-b87d- snipped-for-privacy@e11g2000vbv.googlegroups.com:
Does that make you feel all warm, cudley and green? Goody for you.
Just curious...how much trash are they manually sorting? In other words, do you live In a rural area where the amount of weekly trash is "manageable" from a sorting perspective? I can't imagine manually sorting the trash in NYC or SF.
These are NOT styrofoam.
Greg
They just sort the recycle, not the trash. There are places that have it all on single stream tho and it is usually a big city. (with lots of public employees)
And your point is...?
If they ban styrofoam by name, there will be no difference. "Styrofoam" is a trademarked name for molded polystyrene. Other companies can manufacture the identical product under a different name.
The concept is similar to "Sheetrock" vs. drywall.
The ecoware clam shell is made out of waste sugar cane. It breaks down to harmless stuff pretty quick. Styrofoam, not so much. In fact, never.
Close, but no. Styrofoam is extruded foam sheets, it is not molded. I've been in the eps molding business for the past 43 years and we do not use Dow Styrofoam.
Polystyrene foam is a good energy source in trash to energy plants. It contains 18,000 BTU per pound.
It would make more sense to burn they even if dirty in a trash to energy plant. Plastics have good energy content and burns hot enough to get the rest of the garbage going.
Styrofoam is plastic and recyclable. We recycle it in NE Indiana.
Not really. I've read the science from both sides. Pretty much a draw when compared to other materials. Plastics are visible and people get all emotional.
I was simply asking what was the point of providing a link to something that was not made of styrofoam in a thread that was discussing the banning of styrofoam. Providing a link to a ziplock bag and saying "This is not styrofoam" would have been just as useful - and just as pointless.
Just like most evil plastic packaging. That is why we just burn it.
Oh, that part.
The point is, if they ban Styrofoam, we can use this stuff instead. I believe we already use of lot of biodegradable stuff.
I have no idea how much Styrofoam is being used now, but I can't think of anything I want that's made out of Styrofoam...
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.