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2022 eyed for ban on Styrofoam containers
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Posted on Jan 03 2020
Rep. Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan) is proposing to make the year 2022 the cutoff period for the CNMI to allow the use of Styrofoam food containers.
A bill that Blanco has introduced in the CNMI House of Representatives, House Bill 21-89, proposes to ban the use of disposable food containers made of expanded polystyrene or EPS, commonly known as Styrofoam, in the CNMI in two years’ time.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Agency for Research on Cancer consider EPS as a “possible human carcinogen.”
H.B. 21-89 proposes to prohibit the use of certain EPS disposable food service containers beginning Jan. 1, 2022. These include service ware for take-out foods, packaged meat, eggs, bakery products, and leftovers from partially consumed meals prepared by food vendors. It does not include polystyrene foam coolers or ice chests used for the processing or shipping of seafood.
The two-year timeframe is intended to allow restaurants and other food establishments on the islands to adjust and exhaust their existing inventory, and then seek disposable food service containers that are safer for the environment.
Aside from being a possible human carcinogen, EPS widely impacts the environment, filling up landfills and harming marine life. About 80% of it ends up in landfills (2.3 million tons of the 3 million produced in the United States every year), and the remaining in the waterways.
According to the EPA, once in the landfill, it can take more than a million years for a polystyrene product to decompose. Further, EPS breaks down into smaller pieces in time, which marine animals mistake for food. Tiny foam pieces, less than 2.5cm, were among the Top 10 most collected trash in the CNMI, in last year’s International Coastal Cleanup.
If it becomes a law, violators would have to pay a fine of not more than $100.
H.B. 21-89 complements the Plastic Bag Bill (S.B. 21-37) that the Senate recently passed.
Last Dec. 20, Rep. Janet Maratita (R-Saipan) pre-filed H.B. 21-95 to ban single-use carryout bags.
