Juice Box Is Banned in Maine : Environment: The state has outlawed the soft-sided, single-serving container because the bonded layers of plastic, paper and aluminum that keep the contents fresh defy recycling.

PORTLAND, Me. — A back-to-school quiz: What lunch box fixture will be history in school lunchrooms across Maine?

Answer: The juice box, that soft-sided, single-serving container. The Legislature has outlawed it because the bonded layers of plastic, paper and aluminum that keep the contents fresh defy recycling.

Maine’s unique ban on sale of most beverages in aseptic packaging takes effect this weekend, just as children prepare to return to school and parents think about what to pack in their kids’ lunch boxes.

Although the timing of the law was, by all accounts, coincidental, it has left parents scrambling to replace the drinks packed in convenient 8 1/2-ounce containers that come with straws.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Linda Ball of Portland as her 3-year-old son, Billy, selected a three-pack of fruit juice at a supermarket. “Those glass things,” she said, pointing to a nearby display of single-serving juice bottles. “We’re afraid they’ll hurt his teeth.”

Still, Ball and other parents who stocked up on the popular juice boxes before the ban took effect indicated they were prepared to sacrifice convenience to counter the state’s buildup of solid waste.

“I’m concerned about the environment, so I’ll make do with something else if it’s that much of a problem,” she said.

Supermarkets say they will no longer have the same variety of fruit juices and punches available. Cans or bottles take up more shelf space and have higher handling costs than “brick packs” of boxes.

“We estimate that it’s going to cost consumers in Maine about 17 cents more per unit--for each single item they purchase,” said Margaret McEwen, consumer information director at Shaw’s Supermarkets.

Juice boxes have surged in popularity since they were introduced to American supermarkets in the early 1980s. Their advantages are obvious: light, unbreakable, safer than metal or glass, easy to stash in backpacks and lunch boxes, and easily crushed and discarded.

But juice boxes have become a prime target of environmentalists because they replace containers that can be recycled easily with current technology, observed Jeanne Wirka of the Environmental Action Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Maine, with a goal of recycling half its solid waste by 1994, banned the boxes in an expansion of a law enacted more than a decade ago to require deposits on bottles and cans of soda and beer.

The revised law made all beverage containers, except those used for dairy products, subject to deposits. Liquor bottles came under the law last January, wine bottles became returnable this weekend and all other non-carbonated beverages will require deposits by year’s end.

The only brick packs permitted under the new law are those that contain milk products or juice concentrates.

Tetra Pak Inc., the company that pioneered “aseptic” packaging, says juice boxes are environmentally sound because they are lighter and smaller than bottles and cans.

“We have so much less material in our packages that it creates a lot less waste,” said Edward Klein, Tetra Pak’s vice president for environmental affairs.

Juice boxes remain legal in the other 49 states. Lawmakers in Massachusetts and Vermont last year rejected bans. Rhode Island took a different tack, enacting a bill that requires the aseptic-packaging industry to work with the state to develop a pilot recycling program.

Recycling projects also are under way in Massachusetts, New York and Canada, Klein said.