New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is picking up where the former Big Apple mayor left off and banning the not-so-environmentally-friendly plastic foam containers and cups.
CBSNewYork reported that de Blasio’s administration announced the news on Thursday and said there where be a grace period for food establishments that use such containers before fines are imposed. The ban goes into effect July 1, but the grace period will continue until January 2016.
Sale of polystyrene loose fill packaging will also be part of the ban.
“These products cause real environmental harm and have no place in New York City,” de Blasio said in a statement. “We have better options, better alternatives and if more cities across the country follow our lead and institute similar bans, those alternatives will soon become more plentiful and will cost less.”
The New York Daily News noted that City Council passed a bill to ban foam containers in late 2013 and agreed to delay it until sanitation could prove that the materials were not recyclable.
The mayor’s predecessor Michael Bloomberg, had always been very vocal about initiatives to make the city greener.