EPS plastic bans approved in LA, San Diego

Elected officials in Los Angeles and San Diego cast votes on the same day to greatly restrict the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) plastic in their respective cities.

CBS News in Los Angeles says City Council representatives voted in favor of adopting the restrictions in a Tuesday, Dec. 6, meeting. Some of the restrictions adopted will take effect in April 2023, with others delayed until April 2024.

Among the few exceptions granted to EPS were its use in surfboards, some food and beverage coolers, craft supplies, packaging for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, car seats and life jackets and products prepackaged outside the city. “Health facilities and residential care facilities are also exempt from the ordinance,” according to CBS.

The news report quotes Los Angeles council representative Mitch O’Farrell as saying, “Today, the second largest city in the nation will send a clear message that expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) has no place in our city’s future.”

Language in the ordinance says EPS is not biodegradable, not economically recyclable and has the potential to end up in the ocean. It also says styrene is potentially a carcinogen.

About 125 miles south, San Diego City Council approved an ordinance on the same day “banning all single-use polystyrene foam food containers, utensils, coolers and pool toys effective next year,” according to a report from KPBS-TV.

Comments from council members and citizens with an interest in the ordinance largely pointed to the material’s perceived tendency to end up as litter or ocean-bound plastic as the primary motivation for the upcoming restrictions, scheduled to take effect next year.

San Diego has been drafting (and sometimes passing) ordinances and resolutions restricting the use of EPS for several years. One drafted in 2019 says in part, “Polystyrene foam does not biodegrade, but breaks into smaller pieces, which are easily mistaken for food by marine wildlife and create litter.”

The phasing out of EPS in packaging applications has created opportunities for producers of several other materials, including molded pulp. Producers in that industry sector sometimes use recovered paper in their manufacturing processes.

Some makers of EPS and EPS products have been investing to increase the material’s recycling rate, including the Ineos Styrolution business unit of global petrochemical company Ineos.