No more single-use foam containers for Virginia restaurants!
Restaurants with 20 or more locations must stop using extruded polystyrene foam by the middle of 2023. All other restaurants must stop by 2025, along with schools and nonprofit organizations, according to a new law signed by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. This includes take-out containers, to-go cups and other single-use, foam product-based packaging for food.
Even lawmakers are mistakenly calling these "styrofoam," which is a trademarked brand by DuPont. Frequently, people (including Alexandria Living Magazine in an earlier version of this article, we admit) "misuse the DuPont registered trademark STYROFOAMTM brand to describe disposable foam products like cups and packaging that are made of entirely different materials. But these products are not and never have been made of STYROFOAMTM Brand extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam," DuPont explained. "Instead, these products are made from expanded polystyrene foam (EPS), a different material manufactured by different companies."
The popular take-out food containers are cheap and easy to get, and it does well at keeping food hot (or cold). But the environmental consequences of the popular single-use food containers are serious. This type of packaging is not sustainable to produce and it does not biodegrade.
The Virginia General Assembly passed the measure in 2020, but put a clause in the law requiring lawmakers to pass the bill again in 2021 before Northam could sign it. The delay in implementation to 2023 or 2025 gives restaurants a chance to use what they've already purchased and time to find more environmentally-friendly (but costlier) alternatives.
Maryland and Maine already have foam container bans in place, as do several large cities in California, plus Chicago, New York City and other cities across the United States.
Throughout the pandemic, sustainability has been a challenge for Alexandria's restaurants with the increase in plastic utensils and take-out packaging. Here are some ways you can make your take-out more sustainable while waiting for the ban to take effect.
