New York mayor wants to ban foam containers

Barely 24 hours had passed since Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed an all-out ban on plastic foam food containers in the city and already New Yorkers were asking: So what do we use instead?

Bloomberg’s announcement, made Thursday in his State of the City address, left consumers and food vendors big and small wondering what a city free of plastic foam might look like.

Polystyrene foam containers have long been used by street vendors and take-out restaurants as a cheap way to keep in the heat – and sauces – of meals sold to on-the-go customers. “If they ban it all, we’ll have to use aluminum storage containers,” said Paul Gopaul, 29, owner of the popular Midtown food truck Faith’s Halal Food. “Definitely we’d have a price change.”