Judge Overrules NYC’s Styrofoam Packaging Ban

Even though the city had been moving forward with its ban on polystyrene foam containers (the actual name of the material everyone things of as “Styrofoam”), Manhattan Supreme Court justice Margaret Chan has now overturned the measure, saying that the Department of Sanitation commissioner’s move to eliminate the containers doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. She said the city failed to take into account the options available for recycling expanded polystyrene foam (EPS).

It’s not yet clear whether Chan’s decision will lead to similar action in cities, like Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Portland, where bans remain on the books. The manufacturers have been fighting the legal battle for the past two years. That deal would have taken not only food containers but other polystyrene materials not included in the ban, such as semi-rigid plastics and packing containers, the company said.

But earlier this year she told MSNBC that this was not as much of a problem because as more and more business started adhering to the ban, the prices on compostable containers began to drop.

“After careful consideration of Dart’s proposal, DSNY has concluded that the proposed program does not provide enough guarantees nor could it be implemented in a timeline to warrant a determination of recyclability as of January 1, 2015”, Garcia wrote to de Blasio in the Jan. 1 memo. (You may recognize this argument from an episode of Seinfeld.) Dart, you won’t be surprised to learn, produces styrofoam cups, containers, and dinnerware for both restaurants and consumers.

Yet Garcia said that recycling the material “would not be environmentally efficient [or] economically feasible”. “She concluded that there are no guarantees that there will be an end market for these recyclables”. In court documents, these fans of foam argued that the city’s review of the market for recycled foam was a “farce”, and that de Blasio was pandering to the city’s ultra-liberal green fringe.

Justice Chan on Tuesday sided with Mastro.

Ishanee Parikh, the spokeswoman said that the product posed a big threat to the health of the residents and hence needed to be banned completely.

The city vowed Tuesday to fight the judge’s decision.

“These products cause real environmental harm and have no place in New York City”, de Blasio said in his release about the ban.