Expanded Polystyrene Foam Packaging To Be Banned by New York City July 1

New York City will ban food packaging, loose-fill packing peanuts and other single-use articles made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam on July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced Jan. 8.

The prohibition is based on a city Sanitation Department determination that EPS foam can’t be recycled and that no market exists for post-consumer foam collected in the city’s curbside metal, glass and plastic recycling program, de Blasio said.

A City Council law (Local Law 142, 2013) signed late in 2013 by outgoing Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (D) called for the city to impose the ban unless the Sanitation Department ...