Recent efforts in California, Chicago and New York to ban EPS products such as packing peanuts and foodservice items are being challenged by environmentalists and industry experts who argue that the bans will do more harm than good.
While EPS foam was once thought to be environmentally unfriendly, the new study “Impact of Plastics Packaging on Life Cycle Energy Consumption & Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the US & Canada Substitution Analysis”proves otherwise. Data from the report, which was compiled by Franklin Associates for the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, shows that replacing plastic packaging with alternative materials would result in 4.5 times more packaging weight based on figures from 2010, as well as an 80 percent increase in energy use and 130 percent more global warming potential.*