Styrofoam Facts
 Over 100 California cities, along with many other US cities have banned
Styrofoam for food products.
 Styrofoam is made from Polystyrene, patented by Otis Ray McIntire in 1944.
 DOW Chemicals began mass producing Styrofoam in the 1970s as an
insulation device
 Styrofoam is proven to leak its harmful chemicals Styrene and Benzene into
the food products which then permanently stay in humans' and animals' fatty
tissue.
 According to the EPA, the production of polystyrene releases 57 chemical
byproducts, many of which can cause serious health challenges.
 Styrofoam is made with petroleum, a pollutant to the environment and
contributor to global warming and ozone depletion.
 Styrofoam does not break down in landfills, and leaches its chemicals into its
surrounding environment.
 Because Styrofoam doesn't break down, but easily breaks apart, it is also a
large contributor to litter.
 The EPA recently noted that “There are almost three kilograms of plastic for
every half-kilo of plankton in the oceans, which has a devastating effect on
aquatic life that confuse the two.”
 Styrofoam recycling is a falsehood promoted by the chemical industries that
manufacture it. What little Styrofoam can be recycled (large pieces used for
packaging only, such as what you find around your TV) is done in very few
facilities using complex chemical processes and expends far more energy
than is ever saved by recycling the material.