Judge overturns plastic foam container ban

Justice Margaret Chan overturned the ban that went into effect on July 1, though penalties were delayed until 2016.

According to the RAA, a recent decision by the court denied the Natural Resources Defense Council a stake in the lawsuit, stating the group had “neither a claim nor a defense” relevant to the question at hand: whether the city’s ban on foam was arbitrary and capricious in light of evidence that foam can be recycled instead.

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A spokeswoman for Mr.de Blasio said the administration disagreed with the judge’s ruling and was looking for a way to appeal it.

Good news for takeout fans and New Yorkers who like to drink their beer out of big, cheap Styrofoam cups: You will still be able to do exactly that. She also directed the city to outline a plan to recycle the material.

“The Commissioner’s concern is not justified given abundant evidence showing a viable and growing market for not just clean EPS (expanded polystyrene foam) but post consumer EPS material”, Chan wrote in her decision, a major victory for the foam industry.

The Associated Press notes that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported the ban and that de Blasio put it into effect on July 1st. Last year, the city collected almost 30,000 tons of single-use foam, which is more than six pounds of foam per resident. The expansion of the recycling program was funded by a $45,000 grant from the Foam Recycling Coalition, a program of the Foodservice Packaging Institute. Finding a market for the material can also be hard , opponents to foam recycling have argued, though the industry is ready to come to New York’s rescue on both counts.

Developers now are required to set aside affordable units only if they’re requesting assistance from the city.

“We were proud to start the work to ban it and Mayor de Blasio was right to move ahead with the ban”.

The city immediately pledged to fight the decision, reiterating their case that such foam can not be profitably recycled.

Chan said the business owners proved the opposite is true.