Chicago restaurants, stores and cafeterias would be prohibited from using Styrofoam and other “polystyrene foam” products that clog landfills, under a crackdown proposed Wednesday by the City Council’s most influential alderman.
Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) drafted the ban after learning that Chicago Public Schools use and throw away 35 million Styrofoam lunch trays each year.
If the City Council approves the ban, violators would face fines ranging of up to $300 for the first offense to $500 for subsequent violations.
City Hall would be free to grant exemptions, only if there is “no alternative that is both affordable and compostable.”
“This particular product remains in landfills forever and ever and never breaks down. … We’ve got to start thinking about how to change people’s habits. … We’ll be on the cutting edge of trying to regulate the environment,” Burke said.
“I don’t think we’re interested in snapping our fingers and stopping it immediately. But, I don’t see why we can’t explore how to phase in this kind of a change. … Sometimes, you have to push the envelope a little bit in order to get to where we ought to be.”
David Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, denounced the proposed ban as anti-business and ill-conceived at a time when unemployment stands at 11 percent statewide and even higher in Chicago.
“We should be trying to think of ways to get people back to work instead of focussing on things that add cost to the Chicago business community,” Vite said.
“I hear so often, ‘This is just a little thing.’ Well, there are dozens of little things that add up to Chicago not being friendly to business. This is another example. I know Ald. Burke is well-meaning. But, this is one of those things that doesn’t stand the test of good judgment.”
If there were “better, less expensive and more appropriate” alternatives to Styrofoam products, businesses would “gravitate to them,” Vite said. But, they are simply “not available,” he said.
“So, we’ll either have cold or spoiled food or people won’t have available to them vehicles to take their food out,” Vite said.
“That market was created because we have two-income households where people have to take their lunch to work and cafeterias that don’t have the ability to keep things warm.”
Two years ago, Burke and Ald. Marge Laurino (39th) dropped their push for a San Francisco-style ban on plastic bags in favor of a watered-down version less costly and burdensome to retailers.
It required Chicago retailers who make 25 percent of their gross sales from food or pharmaceuticals to install plastic bag recycling bins — and distribute bags that state “”Please reuse or recycle.”
At the time, the aldermen warned that, if the compromise plan didn’t curb the flood of plastic bags now stuck in trees and jamming landfills and waterways, Chicago could either broaden the mandate beyond the 20,000 stores already covered or follow San Francisco’s lead by banning plastic bags.
Environmentalists had urged aldermen to take the bold step of imposing a tax of 10 cents or more on plastic bags. That helped the Republic of Ireland reduce plastic bag usage by 94 percent.
Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.
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