Chicago restaurants, stores and cafeterias would be prohibited from using Styrofoam and other “polystyrene foam” products that clog landfills, under a crackdown proposed Wednesday by the City Council’s most influential alderman.
Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) drafted the ban after learning that Chicago Public Schools use and throw away 35 million Styrofoam lunch trays each year.
If the City Council approves the ban, violators would face fines ranging of up to $300 for the first offense to $500 for subsequent violations. City Hall would be free to grant exemptions, only if there is “no alternative that is both affordable and compostable.”
“I don’t think we’re interested in snapping our fingers and stopping it immediately. But, I don’t see why we can’t explore how to phase in this kind of a change. ... Sometimes, you have to push the envelope a little bit in order to get to where we ought to be.”
David Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, denounced the proposed ban as anti-business and ill-conceived at a time when unemployment stands at 11 percent statewide and even higher in Chicago.
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