New York City’s ban on plastic-foam food containers, the once-ubiquitous vessels for Chinese takeout and curbside halal food, has been overturned, rejecting a signature environmental initiative of two mayors and clearing the way for an industry-backed plan to buy and recycle the items.
Describing the sanitation commissioner’s ban as “arbitrary and capricious,” Justice Margaret A. Chan of State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday denied the city’s claim that recycling used polystyrene containers “was neither environmentally effective nor economically feasible.”
The judge ordered the Sanitation Department to reconsider the ban in light of a proposal by a foam container manufacturer to pay for better machines to clean and sort the material and keep most of it out of landfills.
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