In 2020, New York enacted a ban on polystyrene food packaging, often known by the brand name Styrofoam.
The ban took effect at the beginning of the year. Restaurant owners say the cost of replacement packaging puts more pressure on their bottom lines. Dick Austin, owner of Bella’s Sicilian Ristorante in downtown Geneva, says he understands the environmental reasons for the ban, but he says the more environmentally-friendly packaging can cost more than ten times as much. He says he’ll have no choice but to try to recoup at least some of the cost.
Restaurants are allowed to use their existing stock of polystyrene packaging until it runs out.
Our full conversation with Dick Austin on the polystyrene ban and operating a restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic will be coming up on a future edition of the Inside the FLX podcast here on FingerLakes1.com.
