Ban takeout containers? Not so fast

It started with plastic bags and plastic straws, now they’re coming for your takeout.

On Tuesday, leaders of the Joint Committee on Public Health and representatives of the food container industry duked it out during a hearing on bills to restrict the use of polystyrene food containers and utensils, according to the State House News Service.

To hear advocates from the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) and Environment Massachusetts, and Rep. Dave Rogers tell it, single-use plastic products like foam cups and takeout containers should be banned because of the health and environmental risks associated with them.

“I think we all know very well that single-use plastic products including polystyrene foam cups and takeout containers are a major source of pollution in our rivers, streams and oceans. Fragments of plastic have been found in hundreds of species, which can block their digestive tracts and lead to starvation and, additionally, plastic waste washing up on our beaches in riverbanks is an eyesore,” Ben Hellerstein, state director for Environment Massachusetts, said. “For all these reasons and more, there’s more than 100 communities across Massachusetts that have already taken action to restrict the use of plastic products.”

Of course they have, this is Massachusetts.

Officials from Dart Container, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of polystyrene food service containers, and the American Chemistry Council said these arguments were overstated.

“The reason why I’m opposed to this, obviously, is there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Christine Cassidy, recycling manager for Dart Container, said. She said landfill waste audits have found that polystyrene food service containers make up about 1% of landfill waste versus about 30% made up by food waste.

Committee co-chair Sen. Jo Comerford disputed that figure, and said the committee’s own research on the topic found polystyrene was responsible for about 25% to 30% of landfill waste.

We don’t doubt that the committee’s research was thorough, and we don’t know where Dart Container got their number, but the disparity calls for independent scrutiny.

Remember how the plastic straw ban got underway? Milo Cress, then 9 years old, started his “Be Straw Free” campaign in 2011. He found that Americans use more than 500 million drinking straws daily. That figure became the go-to statistic for major media outlets writing about the issue.

He got to that number by calling straw manufacturers and asking their estimates of the daily straw market in the U.S. Needless to say, that number has been disputed.

But even if there is a concession as to the amount of polystyrene landfill waste, questions remain: what are the alternatives for takeout containers, and what effect would this have on the restaurant industry?

We’re quick to jump on the banwagon — if something is delicious but unhealthy, or can blow into the ocean and hurt a fish, it’s history. The notion of letting people choose for themselves, and take steps to be responsible of their own volition, is never on the table.

Why offer paper or plastic when you can make the decision for us?

And so it is with polystyrene food containers.

Presented with the facts, people are capable of making their own choices. If environmental activists want to affect change, they should think incentive, not cudgel.