New York City's Foam Ban Is Scrapped After Less Than Three Months

Restaurants can use as many foam containers for take-out and delivery orders as they want, because a New York Supreme Court judge over-turned NYC's foam ban earlier this week. The ban went into effect on July 1, however officials weren't going to enforce it until early next year. So, basically, not much has changed at all, but restaurants big and small will not have to swap out their packaging at any point in the near future.

Mayor Bloomberg proposed the ban in his last State of the City address, and Mayor de Blasio put it into action this year. Justice Margaret A. Chan described the ban as "arbitrary and capricious." A rep for Mayor de Blasio tells the Times: "We disagree with the ruling...These products cause real environmental harm, and we need to be able to prevent nearly 30,000 tons of expanded polystyrene waste from entering our landfills, streets and waterways." De Blasio's team might attempt to appeal the ruling. Earlier this week, Justice Chan argued that the city could save $400,000 per year by recycling 40 percent of its discarded foam.