The Newport Beach City Council will vote today on an ordinance to ban Sytrofoam products. Initially proposed by students of Newport Harbor High School, the citywide ban would curb the use of those to-go containers we are all too familiar with, but according to The Daily Pilot, it includes a hardship clause that “exempts restaurants if eliminating Styrofoam products from their businesses would cause owners undue economic hardship and no reasonable alternative can be found.”
Similar ordinances are already in effect in Laguna Hills.
Update Oct. 15: The Newport Beach City Council was unanimous in banning Styrofoam. Final approval is expected to happen Oct. 28th. If it passes this final step, the ban will begin April 29th of next year.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.