Styrofoam containers to be banned

The English city of Oxford, home to the famous Oxford University, is to become the first city in the United Kingdom to ban the use of styrofoam food containers in a bid to clean up the environment and reduce landfill waste.{{more}}

The Oxford City Council has decided on a regulation which will require all street vendors to use recycled or biodegradable containers. This will affect all new applications for licences for selling food at street stalls, but existing businesses will be allowed to use up existing stock before having to comply.

“Plastic take-away food containers are an environmental disaster and recyclable and biodegradable alternatives are easily available,” says Council leader Bob Price. He described the decision as but “a small step in improving the street environment and increasing recycling.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, similar decisions have already been taken by 70 smaller US cities and now, the ‘Big Apple’, New York City, is to follow. In a month and a half’s time, New York too is to enforce such a ban in a bid to clean up the environment. Over 28,000 tonnes of polystyrene was collected as garbage in 2014. (Contributed)