Letters to the Editor: ‘Polystyrene foam should have never been born. Let it die.’

To the editor: The U.S. is littered with stories of products that were tragically introduced into widespread use before their flaws were realized, and which then took decades of struggle and ongoing pollution to remove from the marketplace. DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls, hydrofluorocarbons, lead paint — I could go on and on. Polystyrene foam, widely referred to as styrofoam in the U.S., is a rare success story in which the public realized industry made a terrible mistake and insisted that it be corrected (“Styrofoam fights for its life as plastic industry mounts recycling push,” July 15).

As the author of some of the earliest ordinances restricting the use and sale of polystyrene foam, I celebrate this democratic course correction. Polystyrene foam should have never been born. Let it die.

Tim Goncharoff, Fairfield

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To the editor: What’s the point of callin’ shots; this cue ain’t straight in line.

Cue ball’s made of styrofoam and no one’s got the time.

— “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo,” Grateful Dead

Failed attempts to legislate plastic recycling prove that no one’s got the time (or money) to recycle single-use plastics, which is of limited benefit anyway. Unlike metals, plastics cannot be recycled repeatedly without degrading in quality. Thus, recycling plastics only delays their inevitable fate as pollution.

The ultimate solution is to use degradable plastics. Several have already been developed. In the meantime, what can we do with all of these plastics we are getting buried in? Turn them back into fuel.

Polyethylene can be catalyzed into hydrogen and valuable pure carbon graphene. And what about the styrofoam? Burn it! This may sound insane to environmentalists, as burning polystyrene at low temperatures releases benzene and a whole host of other poisons. However, if burned above 1,000 degrees Celsius, polystyrene has been shown to burn more cleanly, generating mostly water and carbon dioxide.

We do not need more carbon dioxide in the air. But as long as we continue to operate coal-burning power plants (which are now capable of operating as high as 1,700 degrees Celsius), we may as well burn off some of the styrofoam by mixing it with coal. It beats dumping it in the ocean.

Jack Debes, Santa Monica

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To the editor: If only letters to the editor could include our photos! We have them and wouldn’t need even 150 words to address the plastic industry’s claims that polystyrene foam is safe and misunderstood.

My organization finds polystyrene foam every time we paddle out to clean up our harbors, bays and rivers. Of the 477,988 pieces of litter Paddle Out Plastic volunteers have removed from the water by kayak and standup paddleboard over seven years, 178,135 were plastic foam. That’s 37%. Yet those numbers only tell part of the story.

We often find gobs of small fragments of plastic foam, often commingled with organic matter, that will never be removed. Awareness of this problem has increased thanks in large part to the media. After awareness, though, we’ve got to actually address the problem and push back against the greed of plastic industry executives who push profit over the health of people and the planet.

Eva Cicoria, Rancho Palos Verdes
This writer is founder and executive director of Paddle Out Plastic, a 501c3 organization cleaning up waterborne litter.