FOAM WARS: Plastics lobby tries to roll back wave to ban polystyrene

By Kera Abraham

It’s energy-efficient, cheap and more environmentally friendly than most people realize. Heck, you might even call it sustainable. Contrary to popular belief, it is recyclable – and the claims that it poses a human health risk are unsubstantiated. If it ends up on streets, beaches and in the guts of wild animals, blame litterbugs, not the product.

So argues Mike Levy, director of the American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group, in a well-timed effort to counteract momentum for a regional ban on polystyrene, better known as Styrofoam. The ACC has retained PR-heavyweight Armanasco Public Relations, Inc. to make its case locally, and Levy himself addressed the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 13. Two days later, Monterey Regional Waste Management District’s Litter Abatement Task Force presented the district’s board with a draft polystyrene ban.

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