Melrose Aims To Ban Polystyrene

MELROSE, MA — The City Council is weighing another ban aimed at making Melrose a more environmentally sustainable city. The latest move, introduced at Monday night's Legal and Legislative Committee meeting, would do away with polystyrene, including styrofoam, its most popular branded form, at retailers and school cafeterias.

Polystyrene isn't biodegradable or recyclable and is probably carcinogenic, scientists say. But it's a staple for many takeout restaurants and school lunches, not to mention being ubiquitous at Dunkin'. The questions facing those supporting a ban is: What is the alternative and what would it cost?

Paper and aluminum are significantly more environmentally friendly and offer what advocates say are almost cost-neutral alternatives. While a polystyrene lunch tray costs 4 cents, paper boats could cost 2, 3 or 5 cents depending on the size, Rebecca Interbartolo of Zero Waste Melrose told the Council.

The food vendor Melrose Public Schools uses last year negotiated a small increase in lunch costs in anticipation of going to paper, but polystyrene trays are still used on "messy" lunch days, like when there is spaghetti or fajitas, because it helps separate different food items. The paper boats are used when lunch is something like chicken fingers or a hot dog.

Dunkin' aims to phase out styrofoam cups by 2020. For other food establishments in Melrose, the kind of takeout containers you offer could have to do with the kind of cuisine people are bringing out. Some businesses were concerned about increased costs, advocates acknowledged, but most were on board — some have already made the change.

Besides, the cost could be a lot pricier if no action is taken, some said Monday.

"Plastic pollution is not just a local problem, it's not just a Melrose problem, it's really a global one," Trudy MacDonald of Zero Waste Melrose said. "In the United States the solution needs to start here at the local level."

Thirty-nine municipalities in Massachusetts have a polystyrene ban in effect.

"These are small efforts on the local level to help combat climate change and reduce our trash and are in line with goals of Zero Waste Melrose as well as goals as we as a society should implement because we're running out of time," Councilor Mike Zwirko, who co-sponsored the legislation, told Patch Monday.

The order was held in committee as Zwirko works to refine the legislation. He hopes it will be heard again in November.

The City Council — which was meeting under the name for the first time since Gov. Charlie Baker signed it into effect — banned single-use plastic bags in 2017. Last month it made it so single-use plastic straws would be available only upon request, though it isn't a ban. That not-ban goes into effect in December.