The world’s largest manufacturer of polystyrene cups and food trays is offering to bankroll a recycling program in an 11th-hour bid to prevent Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council from approving a city ban on its products by year’s end.
The City Council Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management is holding a hearing Monday on the bill to ban the material commonly referred to as styrofoam. Hizzoner and some term-limited council members are moving to pass the edict before leaving office on Dec. 31, The Post reported last week.
But Michigan-based firm Dart Container Corp. is offering to pay to have foam trays and cups sorted out from the city trash so it can be cleaned of food waste — necessary before recycling — and trucked to an Indiana recycling plant.
City officials say plastic-foam containers add 23,000 tons of trash to the city’s waste stream each year and say the ban is necessary because the dirty foam is non-biodegradable and therefore not recyclable. They said the ban would shave millions of dollars in disposals costs.
Michael Westerfield, Dart’s director of recycling, said his plan would save the city will money.
“New York City pays $86 a ton to landfill foam. We’re offering to pay $160 to recycle it,” he said. “We’re relieving the city of the burden.”
Shaw offered to recycle the city’s rigid plastic not covered by the ban, such as egg cartons, packing foam and ice chests.
He said his firm would pay $4 million for city styrofoam.