Wen Sheng Dai

12/12/14

730

ELA
Drinking Coffee from Styrofoam Cup?
Waking up on a Monday morning, you rise up from bed and get ready for work. Like you

always do, you make the coffee and search for a cup to drink the coffee. When you open the
cabinet, you grab a Styrofoam cup in which you decide to use to pour your coffee in. But hold
on! Are you aware of the harmful effects that your cup can do to the environment? Thats right,
the Styrofoam that you are about to use right now is really harmful to the environment.
Styrofoam can cause permanent landfill along with other pollutions. Not only is Styrofoam
capable of doing that, but Styrofoam can really affect an animals health and very possibly;
death, if they consume this material. Additionally, Styrofoam contributes to more than one type
of pollution. One of the pollution is marine pollution and the other pollution is air pollution.
One reason why the use of Styrofoam should be stopped; or at least minimized is because
Styrofoam material is non-biodegradable. When a material is non-biodegradable, it means that
the material will not be able to decompose nor break down. According to
greenloving.lovetoknow.com, an article called How Styrofoam is bad for the Environment by
Karen Frazier states, Styrofoam appears to last forever, as it is resistant to photolysis, or the
breaking down of materials by photons originating from a light source. In simple language, this
means that Styrofoam material is not able to vanish and go away due to its components that
make up Styrofoam. Styrofoam will permanently stay in the environment once produced. The
fact that Styrofoam is non-biodegradable is bad because this means that after Styrofoam is used,
and even disposed, the material will forever stay there. As a result, when more and more
Styrofoam is used then disposed into landfills, where enormous piles of garbage sit at; there will

be this eternally lasting mountain of trash. So when Styrofoam is contributed into this mountain,
it would only grow never shrink. Adding on, according to an article called, The
Environmental Impacts of Styrofoam (sustainability.wustl.edu) it states, 25-30% of landfills
are dedicated to plastics, including Styrofoam. This shows that because such a great amount of
Styrofoam is used it is a factor of irremovable land waste.
Another reason why we should stop or lessen the amount of Styrofoam we use is because
the use of Styrofoam can really put animals lives at risk. According to an article in
mamashealth.com, it states, The scent of food as well as any remnants of it is left in the
Styrofoam container. This entices the animal to chew on the container which can cause the
animal to choke on the pieces. The animal can die from asphyxiation if this occurs. It can also
result in an intestinal blockage. To rephrase, because there are still food left in the Styrofoam
containers, when disposed, animals will be attracted to eat the Styrofoam. When the animals do
consume it, this will cause death from damage in breathing and choking (asphyxiation) and also,
animals would not be able to digest which leads to starvation. This is why we should stop using
Styrofoam; the Styrofoam which became garbage for humans that is accidentally consumed by
the animals who wouldnt have any knowledge that what theyre about to consume can actually
kill them. It is not fair that animals suffer painful death, choking, starvation because of careless
human actions. Before we decide on using Styrofoam, we should really consider on how it can
hurt animals and the environment.
The third reason why Styrofoam should be prevented from being used is because using
Styrofoam contributes many types of pollution to the environment such as marine pollution and
air pollution. The reason why and how Styrofoam is contributing to marine pollution, which is
pollution to the ocean and bodies of water, is due to the material incorporated in Styrofoam;
polystyrene. In the article, The Danger of Polystyrene by Future Centre Trust, it stated,

Polystyrene foam presents unique management issues because of its lightweight nature,
floatability, and the likelihood to be blown from disposal sites even when disposed of properly.
The lightweight and buoyant polystyrene travels easily through gutters and storm drains
eventually reaching the ocean. When polystyrene travels down waterways and storm drains into
the oceans, it breaks down into smaller non-biodegradable pieces that are ingested in marine life
and other wild life thus harming or killing them. This statement shows that polystyrene can
easily arrive at oceans because of the hitch hiking method; being carried away by the wind. As
a result, the polystyrene will end up in the oceans where marine life like fish lives in. Marines
homes will also be polluted and invaded by polystyrene/styrofoam. And not only that, the
polystyrene will break into pieces small enough for the marine lives to consume and get killed.
As mentioned previously, not only does Styrofoam contribute to marine pollution but also
air pollution. This is because for Styrofoam to be made, pentane is used in the process of the
Styrofoam making which pollutes the already polluted atmosphere. According to Harmful
Effects by Dyna Whiting (ehow.com), it states, For instance, pentane is used as a blowing
agent to create the foam-like structure of Styrofoam. During the blowing process, pentane is
dispersed into the air where it contributes to smog. To put it in another way, the chemical,
pentane is used to make the Styrofoam the way it is supposed to be; lightweight, heat and cold
insulation. When the chemical is being used, it goes into the atmosphere and adds into the smog
that we already have today. Meaning, by producing and using more Styrofoam, the vast air
pollution that we have created will increase. We must try to slow down the air pollution as much
as we can before there is no turning back.
Many will argue that there are programs that you can go to so that Styrofoam can be
recycled. For example, an article titled, Yes! You Can Recycle Styrofoam, (ecycler.com)
mentions organizations such as The Plastic Loose Fill Council, Green Freak, ReFoamIt,

and V&G Styro Recycle that will recycle Styrofoam. This is true, but what is also true is that
there are extremely limited and tiny amount of organizations that accept Styrofoam as a
recyclable material. According to an article called, Is Styrofoam Recyclable? by Rob Tocchio
(keenforgreen.com), it states, The problem is that there arent many facilities that accept this
material for recycling. The article also stated, Styrofoam is so light and bulky that this makes it
difficult for facilities to manage Styrofoam. This proves that there are not enough available
organizations that will allow every Styrofoam user to recycle their Styrofoam. Additionally,
while recycling Styrofoam is a good action for the environment, it also hurts the environment as
well, According to an article titled, All about Foam Plastics (nyc.gov), it states, This
[recycling styrofoam] means that the material must be shipped to distant factories. The transport
& processing is expensive, unsustainable, and not environmental friendly. All in all, the only
solution, which is recycling Styrofoam, is not the best-helping solution.
Today, fortunately, a handful of people have taken the initiative of stopping their use of
Styrofoam, and use alternatives such as using the reusable plastic cups in Starbucks and their
reusable mugs. According to earthresource.org, other alternatives that can be utilized as in a
replacement of Styrofoam are Post-consumer recycled paper, bamboo, corn plastics materials.
Unlike Styrofoam, these materials can actually biodegrade and vanish. The website also states,
Every ton of 100% of post-consumer waste recycled paper products you buy saves 12 trees,
1,087 pounds of solid waste, 1,560 kilowatts of energy (2 months of electric power required by
the average US home), 1,196 gallons of water, 1,976 pounds of greenhouse gases (1,600 miles
traveled in the average US car), 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 390 gallons of oil. In other
words, using materials other than Styrofoam, like post-consumer recycled paper, will offer far
better benefits for the environment than using Styrofoam that causes accumulation of permanent
landfill, deaths of animals, marine pollution and air pollution. So, the question is: To use

Styrofoam or to not use Styrofoam? After all, is it fair that animals and future generations have
to face negative consequences just because of our own careless actions?

List of Resources

How Styrofoam is bad for the Environment by Karen Frazier

http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/How_Styrofoam_is_Bad_for_the_Environment

The Environmental Impacts of Styrofoam

http://sustainability.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Impacts-of-Styrofoam.pd

Mamashealth.com
http://www.mamashealth.com/environmentalhealth/styrofoam.asp

The Dangers of Polystyrene

http://businessbarbados.com/trending/green-business/the-dangers-of-polystyrene/

Harmful Styrofoam Effects Includes Air Pollution

http://www.ehow.com/list_6190126_harmful-styrofoam-effects.html

Polystyrene Foam Report

http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-styrofoam.html