Stand Against Prejudice
You walk up to your favorite place for takeout and receive a steaming, delicious box of food. That seems simple enough. But what is the impact that this Styrofoam box will have?
Styrofoam, alternately known as polystyrene, is a one-use material that is unsinkable and will never break down or decompose. Styrofoam kills over 100,000 animals every year, and 2.3 million tons of styrofoam end up in landfills. It accounts for nearly 30% of all trash in landfills worldwide.
If we ban styrofoam in California takeout restaurants, we will be saving not only millions of animals’ lives but also our own. The chemicals in polystyrene leach into food and drink, which is disastrous to human immune systems. These materials can also travel through the air and be absorbed through the skin. Styrofoam is also believed to be a carcinogen, meaning that the chemicals in it can cause cancer. Styrofoam also causes depletion of the ozone layer which severely worsens climate change.
So, what can we do? California alone produces 520,000 tons of polystyrene every year. The ban on styrofoam in restaurants would decrease the effects of styrofoam in landfills by nearly 25%. We urgently need to create this change so that we can preserve both the environment and our lives.
Citations:
https://greendiningalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/real-cost-of-styrofoam_written-report.pdf
https://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2017/wp152_2017.pdf
Why does STAND support climate change issues?https://standagainstprejudice.org/standclimatechange/