SENATE Vice President Donald M. Manglona last week introduced Senate Bill 23-44 which would prohibit the use of expanded polystyrene or Styrofoam in the CNMI.
The bill, which is now with the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development & Programs, however, would give businesses, especially food establishments, until Jan. 1, 2025, to adjust/exhaust their inventory and to seek environmentally safer disposable food service containers.
S.B. 23-44 would impose a $100 fine on violators.
According to the measure, the Division of Environmental Quality will promulgate rules and regulations to implement the bill if enacted into law.
The bill would exempt food that is pre-packaged at wholesale, and food establishments from the ban during an emergency when the immediate preservation of public health or safety is an urgent consideration.
Noting that Styrofoam is a petroleum-based non-biodegradable foam, S.B. 23-44 states that the Environmental Protection Agency and the International Agency for Research on Cancer consider it a possible human carcinogen and “that such materials can have serious impacts upon human health, wildlife, and aquatic environment, and the economy.”
The bill further states that “it is in the best interest of the health, safety, and welfare of the people that regulations prohibit the use of certain expanded polystyrene food service products and disposable food service ware to reduce the cost of solid waste disposal, to protect our fragile environment and ecosystems and our wildlife and marine life.”
Donald Manglona
