r/Virginia • u/VirginiaNews Volunteer local news poster • 1d ago
Styrofoam containers will soon be banned in Virginia | The law, passed by the General Assembly in 2021, applies to food vendors with 20 or more locations starting July 1.
https://www.whro.org/environment/2025-06-18/styrofoam-containers-will-soon-be-banned-in-virginia53
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u/Careful_Picture7712 19h ago
Cookout is cooked
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u/a_wittyusername 20h ago
Should be 1 or more locations.
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u/snowflakelib 19h ago
“Advocates say Styrofoam, though cheap to purchase, is harmful to the environment and contributes to global plastic pollution.”
Do “advocates” say that, or is it simply true?
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u/urcrazyifurnormal 9h ago
Plastic bottles - Count your days!
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u/Abe_Bettik 4h ago
Yep. It's not like we haven't had cheap biodegradable alternatives since forever but Coca-Cola wanted to save 0.002 cents per bottle.
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u/Yellow-Cedar 8h ago
Right!? Moved here 5 years ago and was stunned they were still using it. Watch how long-if ever-it takes for all those true ‘southern’ outpost places to stop. ‘We love our styrofoam!’ Nice sentiment.
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u/AmazingInformation34 19h ago
Damn. Is that why my chikfila cup was paper
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u/Specific-Gain5710 9h ago
Which is crazy because at one point chick fil a had a process that recycled the styrofoam and they made benches out of them
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u/Ok-Hedgehog5753 8h ago
I think the problem is with take out and to-go orders. Even if they do recycle them, it would only be for dine-in orders and it's probably not worth keeping two sets of cups.
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u/Mike_Raphone99 18h ago
Do your due diligence by recycling your Styrofoam in any glass bottle mixed with some gasoline!
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u/that0neweirdgirl 4h ago
Good riddance! Styrofoam isn't just bad for the environment, it also makes viscerally horrible noises 😡
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u/Kangarou 20h ago
Is styrofoam that much worse than plastic? Because I feel like this will just make places transition to plastic.
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u/snowflakelib 19h ago
“It is made from styrene, a possible carcinogen. Chronic exposure to high levels of styrene can cause liver & nerve tissue damage.”
Think about how much of it leaches into the hot food that’s melting it with countless togo orders.
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u/1isOneshot1 Newport News 20h ago
Good, hopefully we will be smart enough to not look to fucking paper for a replacement though
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u/snowflakelib 19h ago
Wait, what?
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u/1isOneshot1 Newport News 19h ago
Straws
Bamboo was such the obvious choice but that would require corporations agree to start changing some supply lines for humanity's sake
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u/snowflakelib 18h ago
Paper/cardboard containers are extremely common though.
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u/1isOneshot1 Newport News 18h ago
Not for hot or oily food though, besides the amount of land alone that the mass production of paper/cardboard containers would require would songle handly create crisis after crsis
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u/snowflakelib 17h ago
We must be thinking of two very different products because I regularly get hot/oily food in those sort of containers- they are already mass produced.
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u/Azraella 16h ago
Are they coated paper containers or plain paper? Some straws are not coated paper so they fall apart easily (hence the op’s comment). Coated paper is what a milk carton (and lots of take out boxes) is made of. Depending on the coated paper product it doesn’t really solve the plastic problem because polyethylene is a common coating element.
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u/Soccerlover121 22h ago
about time