Bill May Ban Foam To-Go Food Containers in Maryland

The legislation, sponsored in the House by Delegate Brooke Lierman, D-Baltimore, will prohibit a person or business from selling or providing food in an expanded polystyrene food service product beginning Jan. 1, according to a Department of Legislative Services fiscal analysis. The bill, which has also been cross-filed in the state Senate, also bans the sale and use of loose fill packaging.

The fiscal analysis defines the banned material as "a product made of expanded polystyrene that is used for selling or providing food." This means the bill would ban food containers, plates, hot and cold beverage cups, meat and vegetable trays and egg cartons made of expanded polystyrene.

"Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is the generic industry name for the white rigid material made by expanding polystyrene beads with steam and pressure to bond the beads together to form blocks or to shape molds," according to Universal Foam Products.

Styrofoam, a registered trademark and a type of expanded polystyrene, is not included in the bill, according to the Department of Legislative Services report. "Although foam coffee cups and plates are often referred to as 'Styrofoam,' that terminology is incorrect," the fiscal analysis said. Styrofoam is generally used in industrial settings for building materials and pipe insulation, according to the report.

Lierman said in a Feb. 15 House Environment and Transportation Committee hearing that this bill is an extension of a concept that has already been enacted in some areas. Montgomery County, Prince George's County, the city of Gaithersburg and the city of Takoma Park have prohibitions on expanded polystyrene already in place.

Dr. Richard Bruno, a doctor of medicine who works at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, gave written testimony Feb. 15 in opposition to the bill, saying styrene, a chemical found in expanded polystyrene is a threat to health, waterways and ecosystems.

Delegate Al Carr, D-Montgomery, said it is important to make this a statewide ban because it is a statewide issue and the ban has been successful locally.

"Businesses and government agencies have been able to adapt and have not seen an increase in their costs," Carr said. "I have been receiving many emails from constituents in favor of the bill."

"It is important to make it a statewide ban so that the prices of alternative products go down," Lierman told the University of Maryland's Capital News Service. Lierman pointed to California, saying when businesses there made the transition to stock alternative recyclables the prices changed. "(Expanded polystyrene) is now more expensive than recyclable products in California," Lierman said.

Restaurants, fast food restaurants, cafes, supermarkets or grocery stores, vending trucks or carts, movie theaters, and business or institutional cafeterias would all be food service businesses affected by this bill, according to the fiscal analysis.

"Enacting a statewide ban on polystyrene foodservice packaging will level the playing field for businesses across the state," Nick Rudolph, President of Pigtown Main Street in Baltimore, said in his testimony to the House committee.

Dart Container Corp., a national company that manufactures cups, plates, containers, lids and straws made from such materials as expanded polystyrene foam, solid polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, paper and sugar cane, opposes the bill.

Dart employs 630 Marylanders with another 50 open positions in high-paying, rural manufacturing jobs, according Paul Poe, Government Affairs and the Environment Manager at Dart. Poe said Dart is also planning to open a third facility in the state, in Havre de Grace.

Poe specified in testimony that expanded polystyrene is recyclable and Dart has created a program to accept expanded polystyrene items and recycle them with drop-off and pick-up options.

Delegate Christopher Adams, R-Caroline, Dorchester, Talbot and Wicomico, said in the House committee meeting that Dart's stance on the bill should be considered. Since the company creates jobs for Marylanders, the state should do no harm to the company, Adams said.

"This bill is our hope for a cleaner and healthier future, to neighborhoods with less toxic trash, air and water," Claire Wayner, a high school junior at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in Baltimore County and founding member of Baltimore Beyond Plastic, an organization created to teach students the problems with plastics like polystyrene and elevate their reactions against it, said in her Feb. 15 testimony to the House Environment and Transportation Committee.

"At Baltimore City public schools, lunch is served on polystyrene trays, and as many students are economically disadvantaged, it's not possible to refuse a lunch . when it may be your only food you'll see that day," Wayner said.

"Baltimore City schools serve daily lunch on EPS trays to 83,000 students a year," according to a Baltimore Office of Sustainability Feb. 15 letter.

"Using compostable paper trays, plates, and other containers in place of EPS would make food recovery efforts much more feasible, because users can simply place their tray and all leftover food directly into a compost container, rather than having to separate out trash and compost," the organization said in its letter.

"Around 1 percent of the trash properly disposed of and sent to landfills is expanded polystyrene, but up to 40 percent of litter found in and along water streams is expanded polystyrene," according to Lierman. "That shows the disproportionate amount of (expanded polystyrene) that is recycled and littered."

Prince George's County Department of the Environment Director Adam Ortiz told the House committee it costs $60 per ton to process expanded polystyrene food products, but when they are able to compost the alternative recyclable products, they make money.

Baltimore City, Caroline, Howard and Washington counties accept polystyrene plastics for recycling, but the rest of the Maryland jurisdictions do not, according to the analysis.

"Growing up in neighborhoods that are full of trash, it's hard to not self-identify with the image of trash," Wayner said in her testimony.

"Forcing businesses to use alternative products does not reduce litter; it simply changes in composition," Melvin Thompson, senior vice president of the Maryland Restaurant Association said in a Feb. 15 letter to the committee.

Lierman said that she understands people who litter with foam containers will probably continue to litter with alternatives, but the alternatives are better for the environment and easier to pick up than the expanded polystyrene products.

There are also health risks for consumers who use expanded polystyrene containers, according to Lierman. When expanded polystyrene is heated, it leaches styrene into the food or liquid that is in the containers, Lierman said.

"Styrene, the main ingredient in (expanded polystyrene), has been listed as a possible carcinogen by both the International Agency for Research on cancer and the National Toxicology Program since 2002," Bruno wrote in his testimony.

"The general public is exposed to 20 mg of styrene annually," according to Bruno. "This toxin has no place in our bodies, schools, restaurants or homes."

But the American Chemistry Council referred to a 2013 study completed by the Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group in its Feb. 15 written testimony that said "current exposures to styrene from the use of polystyrene food contact products remain extremely low, with the estimated daily intake calculated at 6.6 micrograms per person per day."

"This is more than 10,000 times below the safety limit set by the FDA," the organization said. "The FDAs acceptable daily intake value of styrene is calculated to be 90,000 micrograms per person per day."

The fiscal analysis said the effect on small businesses and the state will be minimal. There will be an increased cost to the state of $19,300 in the 2018 fiscal year in order to conduct the education and outreach campaign, but will decrease to zero after one year.

"County health departments must enforce the bill's prohibitions and may impose a penalty of up to $250 on violators," according to the fiscal analysis. Health departments must issue a written notice of the business' or person's violation and allow three months to correct the violation before a fine can be issued.