Cities Ban Foam Coffee Cups & Takeout Containers

Your coffee shop's cup of Joe may be getting a makeover as more U.S. cities try to curb litter with bans or limits on foam cups and takeout food containers.

The campaign against polystyrene packaging, often known by the brand Styrofoam, is strongest in California where 70 jurisdictions have approved restrictions — 19 this year alone, according to Clean Water Action, an environmental group advocating them. The bans often apply to restaurants and others using disposable cups or containers.

"This is catching on like a tidal wave," says Miriam Gordon, the group's California director. At the urging of middle school students, Los Angeles County, which runs the nation's second-largest public school system, extended its 2010 ban on foam food containers in county-owned buildings to its schools, which switched to compostable paper lunch trays in August.

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