NYC Starts Fines Under Styrofoam Ban

NEW YORK — Good luck finding styrofoam plates for your next cookout. New York City will start slapping businesses with fines Monday for selling single-use styrofoam products that have been technically banned for months, officials said.

The Department of Sanitation gave merchants six months to adjust to the city's ban on foam plates, cups, takeout containers, packing peanuts and other items, which formally took effect Jan. 1.

But now that the grace period is up, the department will fine businesses caught selling banned products $250 for the first offense, $500 for the second and $1,000 for the third violation and each one thereafter. Merchants should also expect inspections at least once a year from city agencies, according to the department.

"Foam cannot be recycled, plain and simple," Acting Sanitation Commissioner Steven Costas said in a statement. "When foam enters our waste stream, it becomes a source of neighborhood litter and can end up on our beaches and in our waterways."

The ban put New York City among dozens of municipalities in at least 11 states that have banned styrofoam products, which officials say adds to the city's waste stream and harms the environment.

City agencies have sent mailers to nearly 130,000 business addresses, distributed almost 30,000 warning cards, published advertisements and conducted surveys in an effort to educate New Yorkers about the ban, the Department of Sanitation said.

The policy affects food service businesses and stores that sell foam items, along with manufacturers and distributors of foam packing located within the city, the department said.

Officials encourage merchants to switch to compostable or recyclable alternatives to foam. But businesses with less than $500,000 in income can apply for an exemption from the ban if they can prove that buying non-foam products would create a financial hardship, the Sanitation Department said.

The Big Apple's foam ban took years to come to fruition. The Department of Sanitation planned to have a ban in place in July 2015, but two lawsuits held up the policy until the city won in court last year.

Each New York City household threw away 14.3 pounds of styrofoam containers, not including cups, in 2017, a Department of Sanitation survey says. But the city is just a contributor to the global pile of styrofoam waste. The world produces 14 million tons of styrofoam a year, and Americans pitch about 25 billion styrofoam cups annually, according to the Earth Day Network.