New York mayor Michael Bloomberg seeks to ban Styrofoam

By Edith Honan, Reuters February 14, 2013

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will propose a ban on Styrofoam, the substance commonly used for take-out food containers that is almost impossible to recycle.

The mayor who has already targeted fat, sugar and salt in the city will turn to extruded polystyrene foam, saying it clogs up landfills, does not biodegrade and might harm human health.

Bloomberg will raise the proposal in his final State of the City speech on Thursday. The city provided reporters an advance text of the speech on Wednesday.

Bloomberg, in his 12th year as mayor, has made public health and sustainability hallmarks of his three terms in office, and he has taken aim repeatedly at the fast-food industry – most recently in his controversial plan to bar the sale of large portions of sugary soda, which goes into effect next month.

Styrofoam, he says, should go the way of lead-based paint, which the city banned from residential use in 1960. An estimated 20,000