Push for plastic food container ban in Massachusetts renewed

Alison Kuznitz

Massachusetts could have led the nation in banning disposable food containers made from polystyrene a decade ago, a leader of an environmental advocacy group said Thursday as she pitched legislation that has instead stalled on Beacon Hill.

More than 10 states and 60 Massachusetts municipalities have passed various bans on polystyrene, which can be made as a hard plastic or foam, said Jess Nahigian, political director of the Sierra Club’s Massachusetts chapter.

“Polystyrene is unsustainable, it’s toxic — it is a synthetic petrochemical that doesn’t degrade,” Nahigian said at a Joint Committee on Public Health hearing. “It creates microplastics that we find in our air, our water, our soil, shellfish, etc. It can’t be recycled.”

The latest proposals from Rep. Marjorie Decker, the committee co-chair, and Sen. Michael Barrett (H 3627 / S 1328) would apply to single-use disposable products including plates, cups, bowls, hinged or lidded containers, straws, cup lids and utensils.

Restaurants and other food establishments would be blocked from providing containers made from polystyrene starting next August under the legislation, as would retailers such as grocery stores or convenience stores.

But food establishments could seek local approval to delay implementing the regulation for one year by demonstrating an undue hardship, which the legislation defines as a situation “where there are no reasonable alternatives to the use of polystyrene disposable food service containers and compliance with this provision would cause significant economic hardship.”

At the hearing, Decker admonished corporations and the American Chemistry Council, which she described as an industry lobbying group, for their opposition to the proposals. Those businesses, the Cambridge Democrat said, are making profits by allowing harmful chemicals to be used.

In written testimony, the Plastics Industry Association warned bills from Decker and Barrett, plus a similar proposal from Rep. Dave Rogers (H 2261), would raise costs for small businesses and customers. The association, which represents 750 companies, urged officials to bolster recycling efforts and polystyrene take-back programs.

“We are firmly committed to manufacturing products that meet the environmental, social, and business needs of consumers,” the association told the committee in a letter Wednesday, which was shared with the News Service.

“The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the importance of sanitary and cost-effective food service packaging – two attributes that polystyrene foam food service containers exhibit exceedingly well,” the letter continued. “Further, the shock absorption properties of polystyrene are unsurpassed. There is a reason polystyrene is the popular choice to meet consumer demands; the material can do things other materials cannot.”