styrofoam

Creative ideas for your greener city.

Irish scientists have isolated a bacterium that can convert a toxic waste product into safe, biodegradable plastic. This week, scientists Kevin O'Connor and Patrick Ward, of the Department of Industrial Microbiology at University College Dublin, announced that they have discovered a bacterial strain that uses styrene, a toxic byproduct of the polystyrene industry (which produces Styrofoam, among other things), as fuel to make a type of biodegradable plastic, polyhydroxyalkanoate, known as PHA.

Should Brooklyn/NYC ban styrofoam? Hell yeah! NY City Council Member Bill de Blasio thinks so too, and today he introduced legislation that would prohibit the use of Styrofoam by City agencies and food establishments.