Wednesday Apr 23

Polystyrene gets boot

San Mateo County ordinance requires government use biodegradable materials

By Shaun Bishop / Daily News Staff Writer

Polystyrene will soon be removed from San Mateo County buildings - for good.

The foam-like packaging material more commonly known by the trademark Styrofoam will be banned from county offices and food service operations under a new ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

"This is made with wheat flour," said Supervisor Adrienne Tissier, the ordinance's author, holding up a small take-out container before the board unanimously approved the new rule. She said the boxes are now available in the county building's basement cafeteria, replacing old polystyrene containers.

The ordinance bans polystyrene, a petroleum-based material commonly used in take-out containers, and in turn requires the county use biodegradable, recyclable or reusable products.

Other alternative materials that will be phased into the county's eateries include utensils made from potato starch and corn-based clamshell boxes.

Tissier said eliminating the non-recyclable, non-biodegradable polystyrene will carry slight but unknown cost increases, but the benefits to the environment outweighed that factor.

If the initial ban is successful, Tissier said she would like to expand the ordinance to include all businesses in the county's unincorporated areas.

All county operations will be affected, including the San Mateo County Event Center, the San Mateo Medical Center and any catered county events.

The ordinance doesn't go into effect until July 1 to give affected operations time to get rid of or use up any leftover polystyrene products.

Bryan Early, a policy associate for Californians Against Waste, cheered the county's new ordinance and said there are cost-efficient alternatives to Styrofoam.

"There already is a biodegradable material out there - paper - which is recycled everywhere. There's no need to reinvent the wheel," he said.



E-mail Shaun Bishop at sbishop@dailynewsgroup.com.