Item R5B July 23 2014Expanded
Polystyrene and
Miami Beach
Seawalls Along Biscayne Bay
City of Miami Beach:
Surrounded by Water
•Miami Beach is a barrier island
with approximately 70 miles of
shoreline
•ALLCity parks are three (3) blocks
or closer to a waterway
•Lincoln Road, a major tourism
center, stretches from Biscayne
Bay to the Atlantic Ocean
•City Owned Facilities
•Most of the City’s major
thoroughfares run parallel to a
waterway
Impacts to Marine Life
The City supports a wide variety of
endangered and threatened species
•West Indian manatee
•American crocodile
•Johnson’s seagrass
•Brown pelicans
•Smalltoothedsawfish
•Three (3) sea turtle species
Photo by Ariel Moger
Miami Beach Ordinance
Tatum Waterway 2014
Extends prohibition of the sale or use of
expanded Polystyrene food service
articles:
1.In Public Parks
2.In City Facilities
3.On City Property
4.By City Contractors
5.By Special Event Permittees
6.By Sidewalk Café Permittees
Photo by Michael DeFilippi
Expanded Polystyrene
•Expanded Polystyrene is a
petroleum-based plastic product
•It is non-biodegradable and not
readily recyclable
•Takes [[1659,1647,2296,1740][20][,I,][Arial]]several hundreds [[2321,1647,2732,1739][20][,,][Arial]]of years to
deteriorate in the environment
•Not accepted in single-stream
recycling facilities
•Recycling not “closed loop”
More Resources + More Pollution = More Polystyrene
Expanded PolystreneHealth Risks
Styrene
•Contains the toxic substances and
Benzene
•Food containers leach the toxin Styrene
when they come into contact with:
•Warm food or drink
•Alcohol
•Oils and acidic foods
•Restaurants voluntarily phasing out
expanded Polystyrene food containers:
•McDonald’s
•Dunkin’ Donuts
•Starbucks
Litter & Pollution
•Expanded Polystyrene is
lightweight and buoyant
•Breaks into smaller
pieces
•Pollution of our beaches
and waterways
negatively impacts
tourism and quality of life
Pine Tree Park, July 2014
Municipal Action
•Over 100 cities worldwide have already
banned expanded Polystyrene or are in in
the process of doing so:
•New York City, NY
•Albany, NY
•Portland, Oregon
•San Francisco, CA
•Seattle, Washington
•Amherst, Massachusetts
•Minneapolis, Minnesota
•Washington D.C.
•Chicago, Illinois
•El Cerrito, California
•Brookline, Massachusetts
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/21/polystyrene-foam-ban/4141835/
Environmental Protection Agency
TheEnvironmentalProtectionAgencyhasdeterminedthatfloatabledebris,
likeexpandedpolystyrene,canhave“seriousimpactsonhumanhealth,
wildlife,theaquaticenvironmentandtheeconomy”(Assessingand
MonitoringFloatableDebris,August2002;EPA-842-B-02-002).
Pine Tree Park, July 2014
Credits
•Earth Resource Foundation
•http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-styrofoam.html
•USA Today, “More Cities Ban Polystyrene Foam, Citing Environment”
•http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/21/polystyrene-
foam-ban/4141835/
•The Environmental Protection Agency
•http://www.epa.gov/chemfact/styre-sd.pdf
•http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/styrene.html
•Hazard Summary revised in January 2000
•Google Images
•https://images.google.com/
Photo by Michael DeFilippi