McDonald’s Will Do Away With Foam Boxes

A big “McHooray” for McDonald’s for its decision to use non-polystyrene containers! A huge “McBoo” for Llewellyn Rockwell for complaining that the new containers would not sop up his daughter’s hamburger grease and would make his coffee cup too hot to hold (“Could McTofu Be Next?” Commentary, Nov. 7).

Rockwell’s justification for Styrofoam use is ludicrous. He holds the view that landfills contain rocks, which biodegrade very slowly, so why not add plastic cups and other containers.

Why not indeed! Where does he think landfills come from--the air? They are developed in canyons and other lovely open spaces that are fast disappearing. He would probably be in favor of using the Grand Canyon as landfill. After all, it’s certainly big enough!

Rockwell also fails to understand that Styrofoam is manufactured in a process that releases chlorofluorocarbon (a known destroyer of our ozone layer) out of materials that are non-renewable. What a wasteful use of a diminishing resource that is increasingly coming from foreign and highly unreliable sources.

Plastic products may be here to stay, but using them in such wasteful forms as immediately disposable hamburger and coffee containers is shameless folly. Plastics should be used in more durable forms that will not find an immediate home in our fast vanishing landfills as a lasting testament to human shortsightedness.

SHERRI LIPMAN, Fullerton