Styrofoam Nation! Have we not Learned Anything from Wall-E?

I make it a habit to not use styrofoam products if I can help it.  But unfortunately in many cases styrofoam cannot be avoided.  Most delis by me put their iced teas in large styrofoam cups.  In fact, in high school I remember people used it as sort of a fashion statement for whatever reason.  The large styrofoam cup symbolized the contents of the cup were the signature iced tea from the most expensive deli in town.  It sounds ridiculous but there were a lot of ridiculous trends in high school, like Uggs and pounds of eyeliner and skipping lunch.  I never got iced teas because they were in these cups.  Styrofoam is not biodegradable.  It is a weird, squeaky substance comprised of so many chemicals that it will never in a million or a hundred million years break down, making it the most harmful daily used material on the planet.

I can admit to not being 100% green.  I drive a car, take my time in the shower, and occasionally use hair spray.  But I have over the years done things to lessen my personal carbon footprint.  I wash clothes with cold water only, open the blinds instead of turning on lights, and take the train if I want to see my friends up island.  But boycotted styrofoam is what I'm most proud of.  If a deli has only styrofoam cups I get an already bottled drink.  If a "to go" box at a restaurant is made of styrofoam I don't use it.  It sounds like little, I know.  But if others started the styrofoam boycott less of it would end up littering our environment.  There are many cases in which styrofoam can be avoided.  Styrofoam peanuts, for example.  NOBODY LIKES STYROFOAM PEANUTS.  I groan every time I open a package and have to dig through those squeaky little crunchy bits because I know I cannot hope to unearth my product without making a mess.  Peanuts are something every company can get rid of and can be easily substituted with something else.  It's not just the use of styrofoam in packaging, but the amount of styrofoam that is used.  I've pulled many small items from inside a great fat womb of styrofoam several inches thicker than my actual product.  I make sure all the styrofoam ends up in the dumpster outside my apartment, but I know many are not so patient and concerned about that.  Styrofoam is bulky, and there is a lot of it.  People wind up breaking chunks of it up into bits, leaving the scraps and beads to fall to the floor or ground, too numerous to pick up.  Why is so much of this weird, alien life form substance being used?  That's what I'd like to know.  Is it because styrofoam is cheap?  Probably.  But that doesn't mean that the amount of styrofoam being used is necessary.  For Earth Day this year, avoid styrofoam like it's the herp!

Forever the honest,
Stephanie Lato