Posted on 02/14/2013 6:32:46 AM PST by Pinkbell
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has fought against smoking, big sugary drinks and salty food during his tenure, is setting his sights on a new foe: Styrofoam.
Bloomberg plans to use part of his Thursday State of the City address to push for a ban on Styrofoam food packaging. He also will call for initiatives that would increase the number of parking spaces for electric cars and begin recycling more plastics and food waste
"One product that is virtually impossible to recycle and never bio-degrades is Styrofoam ... something that we know is environmentally destructive and that may be hazardous to our health, that is costing taxpayers money and that we can easily do without, and is something that should go the way of lead paint," Bloomberg will say, according to excerpts of the speech obtained by The Associated Press.
He said his administration would work with the City Council to ban Styrofoam food packaging from stores and restaurants.
"We can live without it," he said. "We may live longer without it. And the doggie bag will survive just fine."
Polystyrene foam, sometimes sold under the brand name Styrofoam, makes lightweight, heat-retaining containers, but environmentalists aren't fans because of how long it takes to break down in trash.
Some communities around the country have barred eateries from using to-go containers made of it. A proposal has stalled in the City Council in recent years.
Steve Russell, vice president of the American Chemistry Council, a trade group, said recycling polystyrene was something to look at instead of a ban.
"The technology exists to recycle polystyrene foam foodservice right now," he said, pointing to efforts in California.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Bloomberg also said that the city would install curbside electric vehicle chargers that would let drivers recharge in 30 minutes and that his administration would work with the City Council to change the city's building code so that up to 20 percent of new public parking spaces are wired for electric cars, with the goal of creating 10,000 spaces for electric cars over the next seven years.
Are there really that many people driving electric cars? If not now, will there be?
Yea and I read the other day to park in NYC is 6 bucks.
They make it sound like it’s for free but!
When is he going to have his offical coronation?
Who is crazy enough to savor hot coffee in a Styrofoam cup? You have to be brain dead or maybe this how you got this way. Doing it every day.
Will New Yorkers ever ban Bloomberg?
Is there any way to ban short, egomaniacal Napoleonic-complex-ridden dictators from holding political office?
The man is insane with his power. Until he is out of power, his edicts will continue to erode NY’s freedoms for no other reason than his personal whim/belief system.
Another decree from the despot in the despotic state of New York city. Styrofoam and everything else is banned except bicycle riding which he promotes relentlessly despite more and more people being killed every day riding them. “Yes boys and girls, trans-fats, smoking, styrofoam, donating food to the homeless, the constitution is all evil evil evil, but riding a bike around speeding multi-ton hunks of metal like taxis and trucks is cool cool cool.
What the heck they will be looking for a Leader Dictator soon, let's just let him have a whole country.....
Ban it? NO! Reformulate it so it breaks down in a few years? Yes. Use as little as possible until then? Yes. But by choice, not by government fiat.
They allow it. They deserve it. Enjoy.
When I saw the headline my first impulse was to check if this was satire....
wow.
Ban it? NO! Reformulate it so it breaks down in a few years? Yes. Use as little as possible until then? Yes. But by choice, not by government fiat.
There are viable cellulose substitutes almost as good that are environmentally safe. Improve and use them.
A whole platoon of psychiatrists could spend the rest of their lives analyzing this guy’s control fetish.
$25 per hour, 50+- per day.
I like to do opposition research by reading The N.Y. Crimes ;) The amusing part would be the reader comment, below the articles. For their take on this news, not only did 80% agree with the ban, a large number praised Doomberg as some type of deity. There really are two Americas.
These are MY choices. The pro-abortion crowd is actually ANTI-CHOICE. Liberals are only pro-choice when they choose to murder babies.
Just another thing this guy is an expert on.
I remember conservatives were excited when a “republican” was elected mayor of New York.
If styrofoam never degrades, it is a form of carbon sequestration. You should get tradable carbon credits for producing it.
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