Styrofoam banned for food sellers
Beginning July 1, all food establishments in Virginia are required to eliminate the use of Styrofoam containers.
This ban applies to restaurants, cafeterias, food trucks, and other food service operations, regardless of size.
A law passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2021 banned single-use Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), commonly known as Styrofoam, for food vendors with 20 or more locations in Virginia, including chain restaurants, large grocery stores, and school divisions, beginning in July 2025.
Phase 2, which takes effect next month, covers all food vendors. It applies to Styrofoam cups, plates, bowls, trays, and hinged takeout containers.
According to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality:
- EPS takes at least 500 years to break down. Less than 1 percent of EPS is recycled, and it takes up valuable space in landfills;
- EPS frequently end up as litter. It can blow out of trash cans and end up in rivers and the ocean. Many animals mistake EPS for food, causing potentially fatal consequences; and
- EPS is primarily made from styrene, a possible carcinogen. Chronic exposure to high amounts of styrene for extended periods can cause injury to the nervous system.
Litter Free Virginia offers more information about the health and environmental risks of Styrofoam.
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That’s awesome! One tiny win for the planet. Thanks for the heads up.
So what happens when u go to a restaurant and u can finish ur food and u want to take it home what r the restaurants going to use in place of the Styrofoam
This is such a boomer response lol, plastic containers still exist and you can reuse them
This is such a millennial response. No one reuses plastic containers, and the recycling bin gets dumped in the trash, lol.
Im glad you’re a bit more priviledge to not care to reuse and upcycle. Sometimes I bring my own container to the resturaunts if I know I’m not able to finish my food but in those times where I forget I do reuse it. A lot of people do actually. We use it to store food for our lunches to work.
They have tons of other containers to put food in
Notice the VA general assembly doesn’t provide suggestions for legal storage containers. The food services industry will start using plastic takeout containers or hardened paper/cardboard, using chemicals to harden the container.
What are food service owner supposed to do with a storage unit full of supplies that are all from this material? That’s alot of cost for a small business!
The law was passed in 2021 and phase 1 is already in place. This is not a surprise.
A business that has a storage unit full of styrofoam containers may need some better financial managers since that’s not only taking up space but wasting their money needlessly on storing too much of one product. demand-driven planning to get products just in time is probably a better use of their limited funding.