Letter: Choose paper, not foam

EDITOR,
I would like to commend stores like Ben Lomond Market, Trader Joe’s and New Leaf for offering all their eggs packaged in cardboard. Most people know that polystyrene foam (such as Styrofoam) is not recyclable locally and doesn’t biodegrade for hundreds of years — if at all! Instead, it tends to break into smaller and smaller pieces. The Styrofoam egg carton holding our eggs will still be around 500 years from now. The cardboard container, however, can be tossed into our wood stove or into the compost bin, to never harm a living thing.
When foam containers like coffee cups and egg cartons become litter, the wind and rain can easily carry these light objects into the nearest creek or river, which in turn flows into our oceans, feeding the huge amounts of plastics in the North Pacific Gyre, called the garbage patch. Polystyrene is a threat to wildlife and our environment. Small pieces of polystyrene resembling food are mistakenly eaten by fish, birds and other marine mammals, causing injury or death. Polystyrene foam containers clog our waterways and are a blight on our beaches.
Polystyrene is made from petroleum, a nonrenewable and heavily polluting resource. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there is styrene present in every man, woman and child the group tested.
Cardboard is a proven protector of fragile products such as eggs. Cardboard breaks down in the environment without harm to wildlife. Canon packages its expensive cameras in blown cardboard. If a $200 camera can be safely packed in cardboard, wouldn’t you think that $3 worth of eggs could be, too?
Although the city and county of Santa Cruz have ordinances preventing the sale and use of polystyrene to-go packaging, they don’t have jurisdiction on products packaged outside of our area. That’s where you come in. Consumers can vote with their pocketbook by purchasing eggs in cardboard and never in polystyrene. Let them know through your purchases that you don’t want polystyrene. Paper products are always a good choice.
Chris Moran, Ben Lomond