PORTSMOUTH On New Year’s Eve, the city’s two new ordinances banning single-use disposable plastic and polystyrene, more commonly known as Styrofoam, went into effect. Only one, however, is being immediately enforced by city officials.
Bert Cohen, chair of Portsmouth’s sustainability committee, said with a spirit of goodwill and public compliance with the ordinances, the city is headed in the right direction toward creating a greener environment.
To continue doing so, he said, “We all need to be systems thinkers.”
“I’m aware that there are many bioplastics being produced and experimented with and they will obviously have their upsides and downsides, but we can use cellulose to make plastics which will be biodegradable,” he said. “By moving off fossil fuel-based plastic, which is what Styrofoam is, if we went to a biofuel produced by natural cellulose, in five years we might have products that we can put in natural gardens that can decompose. That would be a
Portsmouth city councilors reversed course Monday night and voted to allow ordinances banning distribution of single-use plastics on city land and Styrofoam containers citywide to go into effect at the end of this year.
Enforcement of the Styrofoam ban with penalties will not start until Sept. 30. Right now, those penalties are up to the discretion of the cityâs legal department.
During their meeting on Dec. 7, councilors voted to consider postponing implementation of the bans until Dec. 31, 2022.
A number of teenagers in the community spoke out against the potential delay. At Monday nightâs virtual city council meeting, the president of Portsmouth High Schoolâs Eco Club said she was heartbroken when she heard about it.