As part of a mounting mission to keep plastics out of waterways and landfills, Santa Clara County officials this week will consider joining cities and counties statewide that have banned polystyrene food and drink containers.

Commonly known by its brand name Styrofoam, polystyrene packaging keeps takeout food warm and milk shakes icy cold. The containers are sturdy and don't leak all over the car.

But environmentalists and waste managers say the feather-light thermoplastic petrochemical is rarely recyclable and doesn't decompose. Instead, it breaks up into tiny pieces and scatters to the wind, clogging gutters and storm drains and choking marine life.

"It is an extremely large litter problem," said former supervisor Don Gage, now board chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. "I hate to be on the side of the environmentalists, but in this case I have to agree with them."


On Tuesday, supervisors and the water board will consider bans on Styrofoam that are expected to pass.
If approved, supervisors would stop purchasing the product for county facilities and events and would enact a July 2012 ban on its use at about 100 businesses that sell food in unincorporated areas. The water district would stop using Styrofoam in its cafeteria and recommend that all local governments ban the material as well.

The efforts follow actions last year by San Jose and the county to curb distribution of plastic bags at retail outlets -- moves that attracted a chorus of opponents, including chambers of commerce and plastic manufacturers. Polystyrene is cheap and favored by food vendors.


Critics of bans that now exist in more than 50 cities and counties statewide have deployed lobbyists up and down the state to beat back the efforts.

Statewide legislation to ban plastic bags and Styrofoam containers has so far failed to become law, including the latest attempt -- a bill by Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, that would have prohibited food vendors from using polystyrene containers beginning in 2016. The bill that would have become the first law of its kind in the nation died in the Assembly in August after heavy industry lobbying.

Daniel Conway, the California Restaurant Association spokesman, said his group now has six to eight lobbyists fighting the local bans because the very premise of banning Styrofoam to reduce pollution is flawed.
"This doesn't address the underlying problem," Conway said. "Essentially what they're arguing for is better litter, environmentally friendly litter -- it doesn't stop people from throwing their trash on the ground."

A representative for the American Chemistry Council, which represents plastic manufacturers, said his industry also opposes "focusing on a single material."

"Reducing litter and marine debris from takeout food packaging is a goal we share," council lobbyist Tim Shestek said in an email. But, he added, alternatives to Styrofoam require more energy and can be two or three times more expensive.

"Cherry-picking individual products doesn't make any sense environmentally or economically," Shestek said.
Yet local governments are increasingly taking aim at Styrofoam. Bans exist in Palo Alto, San Mateo County, the city and county of Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Oakland. The city and county of Los Angeles, Orange County and San Jose have banned the products in government facilities and events.

The impetus has come from trash data: According to a 2004 study by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, of the 377,580 tons of polystyrene generated in the state in one year, less than 1 percent was recycled. An Orange County study found Styrofoam to be the second most common type of litter.

Supervisors Ken Yeager and Liz Kniss are pushing for the Santa Clara County ban, pointing out that alternatives to Styrofoam are widely available. They include the sugarcane-based bagasse, wheat straw and fiber board.

"I find it difficult to believe people who think there are no other options," Yeager said. "There's really no need for polystyrene."

Chef Robert Simpson, who owns Coconuts Caribbean Restaurant & Bar in Palo Alto, sees both sides. Yes, the biodegradable bagasse clamshells he uses cost more, he said. But for Simpson's jerk chicken and goat curry specialties, he said, they work better than Styrofoam.

Simpson said customers can warm their takeout food right in the container and can have the satisfaction that their food package won't damage the environment.

He said while some smaller restaurants may have a hard time with the cost, customers in upscale Palo Alto appreciate the change: "We charge more to go green, but you do it because people see you going in the right direction and it increases visitors."