Foam cups, restaurant take-out boxes, food trays. Polystyrene is everywhere: a soft squishy low-cost plastic material that protects and insulates.
It’s okay to use this: plastic recycles, right? It has a recycling code: Look! Number 6! In a triangle! Printed right on it! Great!
Wrong. Polystyrene doesn’t recycle around here. No one in this region will accept it for recycling. It can’t go in curbside recycling. Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful won’t take it. This #6 plastic goes to the landfill and lasts forever.
I love science, but I don’t want to leave evidence for future archeologists as they study the plastic age.
So I’ve swallowed my pride and started acting like my mother. I’m not ashamed to admit it: I bring my own container to my favorite restaurant for take-home leftovers.
I believe many people making a small change will yield a great big difference. I’m making that change one styrofoam container at a time.
I’m Corinne Sosso, and that’s my perspective.
