BY DONNA WESTFALL
It keeps your hot drinks hot, and cold drinks cold. It protects eggs in the carton. Restaurants send you home with leftovers in styrofoam cartons. Shipping computers and electronics are safer packed in Styrofoam. Why then should we stop using it? Because it’s not recyclable. It will be around for hundreds of years in landfills; if you burn it, it will release noxious vapors into the air; actually around 57 chemical by products.
Did you know that it’s harmful to marine life? It flows on top of the water, breaks up, and when sea turtles for example eat it, it clogs up their system and they starve to death. Same thing with other animals.
Did you know it’s harmful to human life?
- Toxic chemicals leach out of these products into the food that they contain (especially when heated in a microwave). These chemicals threaten human health and reproductive systems.
One simple thing you can do is to avoid using Styrofoam from now on. If you go out to eat, ask for paper cups and plates and paper containers for leftovers. Since there is no such thing as safe styrofoam start actively eliminating it from your life.
- Many cities and counties have already outlawed Styrofoam (i.e. Taiwan, Portland, OR, and Orange County, CA).
