San Jose Ready to Say Adios to Styrofoam

Get your Styrofoam elsewhere: The city of San Jose does not want to be involved in your planetary destruction scheme.

Municipally-owned buildings and city events, programs and venues will not offer plastic foam food containers under a ban likely to be approved by the San Jose City Council, the Mercury News reported.

Under the proposed ban, the "clamshell"-shaped foam containers used to house meals will no longer be used at city community centers, weddings inside City Hall, or other goings-on on city property, the newspaper reported. The city council is expected to vote on the issue Tuesday night.

A full, citywide ban barring businesses from using the containers may follow in the fall, the newspaper reported, but in the meantime, the municipal kibosh on polystyrene containers isn't universally-loved.

The California Restaurant Association is opposed to a wide ban on plastic foam, the newspaper reported. And a representative for Dart Container told the newspaper that "two pieces of litter instead of one" -- i.e., a paper sleeve and paper cup instead of a foam cup for one's coffee -- is not helping.

Cities like San Jose are under pressure from the state to reduce the amount of pollution that heads into the San Francisco Bay by 40 percent by 2014, the newspaper reported. A total reduction must be hit by 2022.