Reduce comes first: MASSPIRG testifies on behalf of state ban on polystyrene food containers

If a plastic product is rarely reused, and virtually never recycled, then reduce is the only way to go.

If a plastic product is rarely reused, and virtually never recycled, then reduce is the only way to go.

So said MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz in her June 11 testimony on companion bills introduced by Sen. Michael Barrett and Rep. Marjorie Decker. The bills would ban most single-use food service containers made of polystyrene foam, or what many people think of as Styrofoam.

“Polystyrene is not actually ‘disposable,'” Janet testified at a hearing before the Joint Committee on Public Health. “When we are done with these containers, they either litter the land and our waterways, get buried and then leach into groundwater in landfills, or emit toxins when incinerated.

“Don’t think of this ban as saying ‘no,'” she urged lawmakers. “Think of it as saying yes to a future where we get back to the first word in the 3 R’s mantra we all know: Reduce.”

Read Janet’s full statement.

Caption: MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz testifies in front of the Joint Committee on Public Health on June 11. Credit: Staff