I tried to stay away from posting on all the bans our elected officials like to impose upon us, but I can’t ignore this one since it’s happening in Genpak’s home state. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, has decided that not only should he ban large soda’s from you, but he’s now going to impose a ban on the vehicle in which you get your drinks. Not only cups, but your hinged containers, soup cups and anything else produced from foamed polystyrene will be banned if he gets his way.
I’m not sure what it is with politicians, that they like to impose their will upon us? Were they picked on as little kids, stood up on their first date or just need to fuel their massive egocentric appetite to reign supreme? I don’t know. But what I do know is, if he is successful and this thing passes, the results will be:
- Your bill for whatever you just ordered will go up in price as “green” alternative packaging does not have the same economies of scale as traditional plastics.
- NYC will trade one type of litter for another. Studies done at municipalities that have banned certain types of plastic in an attempt to reduce litter have found all that has happened is the type of litter has changed from one type of material to another. I’ve no studies to prove this, but knowing a package is “environmentally friendly”, wouldn’t they be even more apt to chuck the hamburger container out the window of their car?
- The higher cost of alternatives will likely force some food operations to reduce their staff (layoffs) or simply close up shop.
- The alternative packaging will still go into a landfill where it will stay for years and years.
- Your taxes will go up. Why? If public schools are forced to move away from their current school tray programs, they’ll be forced to either pay for more expensive trays or buy expensive and costly to run/maintain industrial dishwashers that require a ton of water and chemicals. Who’s going to flip that bill? Taxpayers are.
I could go on and on, but suffice it to say these bans do not work. It is a FAR better solution to let the marketplace decide where this goes simply by the actions of the consumer. Not a politician. If consumers decide they want to eat out of a container that is say, compostable, then so be it. Consumers have never been shy in telling their merchants what they want. After all, it’s their hard earned money that’s being spent and merchants in turn will find a way to get it done. The point is, the marketplace is dictating the terms…not a… well you know.
Please don’t get me wrong here. We fully support the wishes of the marketplace and long ago have offered natural, compostable food packaging. In fact, we have many alternative materials that we offer to our customer base that are either compostable, or source reduced. We would just rather let the marketplace decide on the type of packaging used and not a politician.