After months of debate over whether or not to ban expanded polystyrene food service containers in the Big Apple – and nearly a million dollars spent fighting the proposed prohibition – the New York City Council passed a kind of compromise bill. There will be a delayed EPS ban, but only after industry is given a year to figure out how to collect and recycle the material effectively.
After months of lobbying against a potential ban on expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam in New York City, EPS manufacturer Dart Container has offered the city a deal: Include foam in the city’s curbside pick-up program and the company will buy it — and recycle it — on its own.
In a controversial move, New York City has banned foam food-service products on the grounds that they cannot be efficiently recycled through a curbside collection system.
Foam products maker Dart Container and Plastics Recycling, Inc. are investing $4 million to $6 million to build a facility in Indiana that will process both foam and rigid polystyrene, and the companies say the move comes in response to the resin’s growing market opportunities.
A $45,000 grant from the Foam Recycling Coalition will enable a Denver-area company to begin processing expanded polystyrene and possibly open the door to curbside collection of the material.
A new grant program will help U.S. and Canadian organizations purchase the equipment needed to process and prepare expanded polystyrene for recycling.
A group led by foam manufacturer Dart Container Corporation has sued New York City for banning expanded polystyrene products.
New York City’s recent decision to ban foam food service products due to curbside recycling obstacles has raised another question: What are other municipalities doing with the material?
A county in Nova Scotia is leveraging an industry grant to open the door to accepting expanded polystyrene in its curbside recycling program.
The leaders of a plastics-to-oil plant in Oregon are putting their main business plans on hold and instead processing expanded polystyrene packaging.