Delaware law change could drive up fast food prices
The restaurant industry has often leaned on the white, creaky material because it insulated food for roughly 14 cents per container, compared to a biodegradable option that typically runs for around 25 cents. 'It could be something that affects us when it comes to pricing [of our food],' Ezell Barnes, who owns a Delaware food truck called Zoagies, told Delaware Online. 'We already exist on razor-thin profit margins.'
CEO of the Delaware Restaurant Association, Carrie Leishman, said the new ban could largely affect small businesses and potentially run them into the ground. 'The stain which this could place on a small business could end so many of them,' she told the outlet.
The Delaware ban follows that of California, Oregon, and Rhode Island, which outlawed the material January 1, 2025. The first US state to ban the product was Maine in January 2021. The law was signed in 2019 by Governor Janet Mills, but didn't go into effect until 2021.
The Delaware bill was signed in 2022, but went into effect on Tuesday. 'Polystyrene cannot be recycled like a lot of other products, so while that cup of coffee may be finished, the Styrofoam cup it was in is not,' Mill said in 2019. 'In fact, it will be around for decades to come and eventually it will break down into particles, polluting our environment, hurting our wildlife, and even detrimentally impacting our economy.'
New York also signed its law in 2019 under former Governor Andrew Cuomo. It went into effect in 2022. A 2024 waste study by the Department of Sanitation in New York City showed that polystyrene - what Styrofoam is made of - decreased 54 percent by weight between 2017 and 2023. The Empire State was one of the first states to ban plastic bags in March 2020, seeing a decrease of 67 percent between 2017 and 2023, the study found. California was the first to ban plastic bags in 2014 and will enact another law in 2026 prohibiting the sale of 'reusable' plastic bags that are thicker.
The Golden State has vowed to cut single-use plastics by 25 percent by 2032 and to recycle 65 percent of what's left. It shift to recycled plastic in the same time frame, according to Cal Recycle. Californians throw out 290 Olympic pool-sized worth of plastic each day. Styrofoam takes 500 years to decompose and it cannot be recycled, like glass and certain types of plastic. The material also leaks large amounts of ozone in the atmosphere, which causes environmental and respiratory issues, according to Colgate University. Styrofoam is estimated to take up roughly 30 percent of the US' landfills, with around 5billion pounds of it, according to Heal The Planet.
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