Editorial: Time to say ?adios? to Styrofoam?

That?s why City Council Member James Kraft wants to stop city businesses from using it. Kraft plans to introduce a bill to ban it, he said Monday. Public education about Styrofoam?s ills will come first, though.

“If you throw a Styrofoam cup in the Inner Harbor and you come back 500 years from now, it will still be there,” Kraft said.

He?s right. It doesn?t rot. And the city has a huge trash problem as it is. Sometimes trash from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania ends up in the Inner Harbor. The city hauls tons of trash each week from the creek collectors that tourists and residents casually toss into streets or storm drains.

It?s disgusting. People should know better.

But forcing businesses to use another form of packaging is not the answer.

Kraft said a Lutherville company, EarthShell Corp., could provide alternative packaging that “biodegrades” quickly. EarthShell Chairman and CEO Vincent Truant says his company?s products, made of natural products, break down within 90 days at the outside. That is a huge improvement on eternity and would no doubt help clean up the Inner Harbor.

But EarthShell?s plates and bowls are expensive ? about a nickel more per item than equivalent Styrofoam products ? which means higher food prices. For people who want beverages to go, the company does not yet make hot or cold cups.

And the products are not sold in this area. Truant said the company would make them available if the city needed it, but for now it is focusing on selling its products in places like Portland, Ore., and Santa Monica, Calif.

Better to educate business owners about their options and let them choose which to-go cups and boxes work best for them.

If, as Kraft himself said, the price of Styrofoam rises with the cost of oil, from which it is made, choosing to be green will soon make economic and environmental sense.

If that is the case, why is a law needed?