Consumers Get A Victory!

Initially I was going to entitle this blog entry as Foam Food Packaging Gets A Victory, but the more I thought about it, the real winner here is the consumer. In New York City, the appeals court upheld the New York State Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned NYC Mayor de Blasio’s ban on foam food service packaging. You can read about that here, but in a nutshell the Restaurant Action Alliance and the coalition of Restaurant Owners in NYC filed the lawsuit. The NYS Supreme Court and now the Appellate Court both agreed and the ban has been overturned. Who wins?

• Consumers – the price for your favorite to go meal should not go up due to increased packaging costs
• Food Service Workers – nobody should be laid off due to increased operating costs caused by increased packaging costs
• Food Operators – you are free to choose the type of packaging you and your customers want. Nobody is forcing a certain type of packaging down your throat. You can stay with foam food packaging or, if you want explore other options, no problem. The point is the government is not forcing you one way or the other which is a good thing.
• The Environment – according to the EPA, one of the best ways to reduce items heading to a landfill is to recycle. According to this article, the city has an offer to help recycle 100% of its foam products. If they choose to ignore it for political reasons, they’ve nobody to blame but themselves.