How many times have you had tea with lemon or coffee in a polystyrene (a.k.a. "Styrofoam"^™) cup or bought hot food "to go" in a foam container?

• Foam containers readily leach Styrene when used with hot, fatty or acidic foods
• Styrene is toxic to the human nervous system and causes cancer in lab animals
• Styrene was found in every one of thousands of people who were sampled in EPA tests
• Many factory workers exposed to Styrene suffer from impaired balance, mobility, hearing and other nervous system problems, and higher than normal cancer rates, including leukemia and lymphoma.

Find out more and see a list of communities in and out of California that have already banned or restricted these chemicals 

View Polystyrene Bans in California in a larger map 

Download our factsheet on polystyrene litter (pdf 93kb)

Download our factsheet on styrene (pdf 104kb)

Download our factsheet on SB 568, which would ban polystyrene foam in packaging for take-out food (pdf 101kb)

See the complete text of SB 568 (pdf 146kb)

Download the Responsible Purchasing Network's Containers Purchasing Guide (pdf 267kb)

See a comparison of greenhouse gas emissions of various food containers prepared by the Responsible Purchasing Network (pdf 48kb).

Food Packaging Cost Comparison

LA Times Editorial in Favor of Phasing out Foam

Find out more and see a list of communities in and out of California that have already banned or restricted these chemicals. 

View Polystyrene Bans in California in a larger map

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