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A bill that would ban plastic foam containers often used for food storage or carryout was the subject of a hearing of the state Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.
A bill that would ban plastic foam containers often used for food storage or carryout was the subject of a hearing of the state Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.
ANNAPOLIS — Maryland could be the first state to ban foam food containers statewide, but it would mean taking legislation where it's never gone before.
For the third straight year, the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on a bill that would ban the use of foam food containers. Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery) is again sponsoring the bill, SB 285, to create a unified ban of the product.
"It takes up room in our landfill, it breaks down and does not biodegrade, it ends up littering the side of our streets, it ends up in our waterways, the fish eat it and then we eat the fish. Single-use foam [containers] are up to 40 percent of the volume of our litter," Kagan said at the bill hearing on Tuesday.
Food service businesses would have until Jan. 1, 2020, to transition to non-foam containers, though a one-year waiver may be available to businesses that would experience "undue hardship" from the ban. More than half of the state's population lives in a county or city that has implemented, or has pending, restrictions on foam packaging in food service, she said.
The bill would ban plastic foam food containers — often referred to as Styrofoam, which is a trademark name often misused to describe disposable containers that carry food from restaurants, fast-food places, cafes, delicatessens, coffee shops, supermarkets, food trucks, institutional cafeterias and others.
The Tasting Room in downtown Frederick uses plastic containers for the majority of its food, if it's being carried out of the restaurant. However, the one item it does put into a foam container is soup, said General Manager David Campbell.
The soup is made from scratch in the restaurant each day, and it is packaged to order in the kitchen. A loophole in the bill allows pre-packaged soup and other foods sealed in plastic foam outside the state to be exempt from the ban. The Tasting Room would not qualify for this exception.
The restaurant has not looked into any alternative containers, but it would have to if the bill progressed through the General Assembly, Campbell said. Similar bills submitted in both chambers in 2017 and 2018 never made it out of committee.
Still there has been movement in Maryland and Washington, D.C., away from plastic foam products.
Montgomery County banned plastic foam in food service and as loose packaging starting in January 2016. The following July, Prince George's County followed suit, banning plastic foam for the same uses.
Washington, D.C., also banned plastic foam food containers in 2016 and recently began enforcing a ban on single-use plastic straws at local eateries. These changes have largely been directed at the food industry, even though foam products are used and sold in other industries.
"I don't know if it's needed in the food industry as much as it's needed [to be recognized] as a global issue polluting our landfills," Campbell said.
Kagan's bill proposes that the ban would be overseen by the Maryland Department of the Environment but enforced locally by each county. The counties would each set a fine of no more than $250 and be in charge of enforcing the ban through its health department. Frederick County Sen. Ron Young (D) is a co-sponsor of the ban.
One of the reasons the food industry may be targeted to be the first to stop using a product is because it is the largest user of these single-use products, Campbell said. But he declined to speculate on why lawmakers were considering a ban on plastic foam now.
Baltimore City will stop the use of plastic foam food service products in its school's cafeterias in October. The bill would expand on this action by also banning the use of plastic foam trays in all schools and higher education institutions statewide.
Frederick County Public Schools currently buys five-compartment foam trays to serve food in the majority of its cafeterias, said Steve O'Brey, procurement coordinator for the school system's Office of Food and Nutrition Services. He has begun looking at alternative products; however, initial estimates show a $50,000 annual increase in cost.
FCPS is trying to be proactive in finding a new product to replace its foam trays, since it appears a ban on plastic foam products is the direction the state is headed, O'Brey said.
"We know it's probably going to come down the pipe in the next few years," O'Brey said.
There are a few paths that FCPS could take to replace its foam trays.
Approximately 90 percent of the county's elementary schools and four middle schools currently have reusable plastic trays, but not all the schools have a dishwashing machine to accommodate this change and other school systems have struggled with high school students throwing reusable trays in the trash, said Robert Kelly, senior manager of food and nutrition services at FCPS.
"Who's going to be pulling those out of the trash?" Kelly asked hypothetically.
Another possible alternative to foam trays is a compostable paper tray, which FCPS successfully piloted in Middletown High School during the 2018-2019 school year. However, the tray is three times the cost of the foam tray and would be cost-prohibitive to put in the 10 other high school cafeterias, Kelly said.
FCPS's overall food service operating budget is $12.9 million, and the $50,000 increase to change the trays would account for less than half of 1 percent of the total budget.
Kelly cautioned, however, that the $12.9 million included much more than just food. FCPS is self-sustaining and its food service budget includes labor and benefits for its 340 employees as well as equipment, repairs, computers, pens and pencils on top of food.
On average, FCPS serves 7,000 breakfasts and 13,000 lunches daily at its schools.
"Compared to the $12.9 [million], it's a small number, but there's a lot of other numbers that factor into this," Kelly said.
Follow Samantha Hogan on Twitter: @SAHogan.
On top of a possible plastic foam ban, the General Assembly is also evaluating a prohibition on single-use plastic straws this session.
Del. Sara Love (D-Montgomery) introduced HB 134, which would limit restaurants to providing a plastic straw to a customer only upon request. The proposed change would take effect on Jan. 1, 2020, and would not apply to drive-thru windows.
The proposed change would be similar to bans and restrictions on single-use plastic straws in at least 15 cities in the U.S.
Nearby Washington, D.C., is among the cities that restricts plastic straw use. Starting last October, restaurants and other food service locations were required to switch to compostable or reusable straws and stirrers.
Past studies in Maryland, however, show the state is not swimming in plastic straws.
Plastic straws account for a relatively small percentage of the state's waste, according to a statewide waste characterization study commissioned by the Maryland Department of the Environment in 2016. Straws made up only a portion of the 3.9 percent of "other/composite" plastics in the municipal waste stream.
Due to their low volume, if straws were to be removed from the state's waste stream, there would be little to no impact on disposal costs or local revenues from landfill operations, according to the Department of Legislative Services' fiscal analysis of the bill.
Reducing the availability of straws at restaurants is also expected to have a "minimal" effect on small businesses, according to the analysis.
Love will present her bill to the House Economic Matters Committee on Wednesday.
With another Christmas come and gone, it’s time to think about what to do with the pile of boxes, bag of bows and wad of used wrapping paper.
Samantha Hogan is the state house, environment, agriculture and energy reporter for The Frederick News-Post.
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I'm old enough to remember when McDonalds stopped using foam containers. Damned near put McDonalds out of business, they have become a rarity. People like Styrofoam. Consumer backlash is not to be taken lightly.
FYI - this is a necessary step in making people BEGIN to realize that we are about quick and convenient. There are so many alternatives out there. Speaking of toothpaste - the tubes are bad - they're plastic and will be around for hundreds of years. However, a wise consumer researches and looks around for better options. Davids is a brand of toothpaste that comes in a completely metal tube. So it can be fully recycled. Add a box of bamboo toothbrushes and your daily routine has far less of an impact - just with a little education. Take a look at how much plastic you use in one day......it's pretty ridiculous! Plastic is tough to recycle and fewer companies are purchasing it. Never fear, the US is sending a majority of our plastic waste to the super clean land of India. They have plastic rivers. I was at the beach a few months ago and had to help a child determine if the "stuff" they were finding washing ashore was really sea life or plastic trash. I can tell you 6 out of the 7 things we found were plastic. That's not what the beach was like when I grew up but it is becoming more and more of what our water bodies look like.
Not to mention all the online shopping is incurring an overuse of cardboard.
Your point being? Cardboard is recyclable, foam containers aren't.
Wow. I didn't realize MD politicians have sold all of MDs problems...Last I checked Baltimore is still the murder capital of the country but you know styrofoam...
We sold them to Michigan
Humor is prohibited here. Bad boy.
Foam should be banned, but we need a good reasonable priced alternative.
A lot of medicines that must be kept cool are shipped in foam containers with ice packs. I know that is not restaurants and schools.
I had rather pay engineers to develop a way to recycle foam and let the restaurants pay for recycling when they buy the product.
Plenty of restaurants have found substitutes for plastics and foam for takeaways. Why not the others and schools? $$$
Foam is really an excellent thermal insulator to keep food at a temperature that is safe.
And a carcinogen risk, "In terms of consumer hazards, the biggest styrene concern is with food packaging, as studies have shown that this substance can leech out of polystyrene takeout food and drink containers, says Mike Schade of Safer Chemicals. 'If you drink coffee or soup or eat Chinese food from a polystyrene foam container you can potentially be exposed to this chemical, which government agencies consider reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.'” https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/aug/27/styrene-carcinogen-brands-polystyrene-foam-food-packaging
They make a very nice, thick cardboard type container that is identical to the styrofoam containers. A local restaurant uses them and they are nice. They keep the food just as warm. There are options, but I'm sure they cost more, which means that cost will get passed on to us.
Firestone's also uses something similar.
Stupidest thing I ever heard of.
Tooth paste tubes don’t break down either, let’s ban tooth paste
The article is talking about single use foam containers. I do not believe toothpaste tubes fall into the single use category. The article also states that foam makes up 40% of our litter. I don't believe toothpaste tubes constitute that large a percentage of litter. To use one of your frequently used rebuttal points....read the article.
Jeff. Thanks for the great lecture. Do you realize I was being facetious? Yes, it’s true, many of use FNP Commentors actually have personalities :)
huh? So how many reverse gears does that bicycle of yours have? Was there a special punctuation used that denotes sarcasm that we missed? [innocent]
Didn’t know it was a requirement. I must have missed that when I read over the rules.
Which part of the comment was supposed to be humorous?
Kelly: " Do you realize I was being facetious? "
No, how were we supposed to do that?
Good question, public. I had no idea and I'm known for having a great sense of humor (even if it is a bit warped.)
Additionally, Kelly, toothpaste comes in the tubes, just as food comes in the foam containers. No one is saying to ban the contents, just what the contents come in. Why ban toothpaste because it comes in a tube instead of developing an alternative to the tube, like they're talking about doing with foam containers? Yeah, like jjeeffff said, read the article.
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