Starting Tuesday, a statewide ban on the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS), a form of plastic foam, for food containers takes effect.

The ban stems from a 2021 bill passed in the Virginia General Assembly that targets any food vendor that uses the product from distributing it. The prohibition includes stores, shops, restaurants, grocery stores, food trucks and even school systems – basically any business or individual that provides food as part of its services. 

However, the ban won’t affect small businesses just yet. Large vendors with 20 or more locations in the state must stop using the containers by July 1, 2025, while all others must stop by the same date next year.

The Richmonder reached out to several large corporations’ communication departments but did not receive any responses.

Chick-fil-A's Willow Lawn location posted to Facebook noting the change, telling customers: "We will continue to provide the same excellent service while meeting the new state guidelines. Thank you for understanding!"

At a local Sonic, one general manager, who didn't want to provide his name, said he doesn't know the exact cost of the switch, but would “say it’s definitely more expensive.” 

Smaller restaurants, such as Sticky Rice, told The Richmonder that “90% of our to-go containers are recyclable. The 10% that are styrofoam we have problems consistently getting the sizes we need in non-foam,” adding that they’re in the process of looking for alternatives. 

John Murden, Garnett's Cafe manager, said they haven’t ever used polystyrene there or either of their affiliated restaurants (The Roosevelt and Laura Lee's).

“We did intentionally move away from plastic a few years ago, at some small cost per order – paper bags, cardboard boxes, wooden utensils, paper straws, etc,” he wrote in an email. “Using environmentally sound, take-out supplies puts a cost on each order that really adds up over the course of a year.”

To break it down even further, Murden says the cost of wooden forks and knives are four cents each; a napkin runs 13 cents per roll up. Pre-wrapped plastic cutlery kits are six cents, or a little more than half as much.

For polystyrene, the containers run around $0.13 each, while the equivalent for cardboard boxes are $0.28 each – a $0.15 difference. 

But he added that on the flip side, “sending out that much plastic or styrofoam in the world really adds up over the course of a year too. I'm in the position to make the decision to not contribute and it's a financial choice that we have to make.”

Irina Calos, communications manager with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said the environmental impacts of polystyrene are large.

“EPS takes at least 500 years to break down. Less than 1% of EPS is recycled, and it takes up valuable space in our landfills,” she wrote in an email. “It frequently ends up as litter. It can blow out of your trashcan and end up in rivers and the ocean. Many animals mistake EPS for food, causing potentially fatal consequences.”

The DEQ said that by law, localities may seek an exemption of up to one year “if they can demonstrate compliance with the ban would impose undue economic hardship.”

A handful of states and cities have already banned or are in the process of nixing polystyrene, according to Packaging Gateway, a trade industry group. Washington, D.C. enacted its ban back in 2016. The city's Department of Energy and Environment created a “Foam Free D.C.” campaign, and Virginia’s DEQ has done similarly.

After the first year of the program, DOEE said its collection of polystyrene in a local trash trap fell by more than half, from 15% in 2015 to 7% in 2016. And the department said that the compliance rate for businesses in the District jumped from 60% in 2015 to 96% in 2020.

Virginia’s DEQ wants businesses to consider alternatives, especially ones that are compostable and recyclable, such as reusable containers, paper products (either virgin or recycled or ones made out of plant fibers), foil or even metal.

This article has been updated to correct Murden’s title.