House passes bill that prohibits use of Styrofoam containers

The House of the Representatives passed Tuesday a bill that will prohibit the use in the CNMI of disposable food service containers made of expanded polystyrene or EPS—more commonly known as Styrofoam.

Of the 19 representatives present at the session, Rep. Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) voted “no” to the passage of House Bill 21-89. Rep. Joseph Leepan T. Guerrero (R-Saipan) was absent but excused from the session.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan) in November 2019, will now go to the Senate for action.

Blanco told Saipan Tribune Wednesday that the bill’s passage is a small step in their effort to curb imported materials that are harmful to people’s health and the ecosystem. Blanco also hopes this legislation sparks the entrepreneurial spirit for business-minded individuals to manufacture food and drink containers from local and readily available natural resources.

Blanco stated in the bill that styrene in Styrofoam is made from petroleum-based non-biodegradable foam that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and International Agency for Research on Cancer consider a “possible human carcinogen” and “that such materials can have serious impacts upon human health, wildlife, and aquatic environment, and the economy.”

Blanco said polystyrene is a type of plastic that includes Styrofoam and is expensive to recycle and is not biodegradable, and has been shown to leach harmful chemical into food and beverages.

He said the CNMI has no economically feasible means of recycling polystyrene foam locally, thus a majority of used polystyrene foam end up in the landfill.

The lawmaker said expanded polystyrene is a common environmental pollutant that poses a risk to the fragile ecological balance, since marine and land wildlife perish as a result of ingesting polystyrene products. “This risk can occur over and over again since expanded polystyrene remains in the ecosystem for a very long time,” he said.

Blanco pointed out that it’s in the best interest of the health, safety, and welfare of the people that regulations prohibit the use of certain expanded polystyrene food service products and disposable food service ware to reduce the cost of solid waste disposal; to protect the environment and ecosystems, and wildlife and marine life.

The bill will prohibit the use of Styrofoam food containers beginning Jan. 1, 2022, to allow food establishments to exhaust their inventory and to seek environmentally safer disposable food service containers that include service ware for take-out foods, packaged meat, eggs, bakery products, and leftovers from partially consumed meals prepared by food vendors.

The bill excludes polystyrene foam coolers or ice chests that are used for the processing or shipping of seafood and “emergency use.” The other exemption is food or beverages that come prepackaged with Styrofoam at wholesale.

A civil fine of not more than $100 may be imposed for violation. Under the legislation, the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, Division of Environmental Quality may promulgate rules and regulations to implement the law.