Senator Daniel Zolnikov brought one of life’s biggest dilemmas to the Senate floor over the weekend: When you’re microwaving leftovers, how do you determine the perfect amount of time needed to evenly heat your food?
Specifically, how long should you heat up your takeout pork carnitas in its styrofoam container?
“Is it a minute? A minute-and-a-half? The ultimate, ultimate microwave dilemma” Zolnikov asked. “Better to do it a little longer than have it still be cold in the middle.”
However, that decision comes with increased risks
“But you microwaved it too long, and the styrofoam has had some small portions that now also melted.”
Zolnikov carried House Bill 477 through the Senate, a bill that would ban the use of styrofoam containers in the food industry within five years. He, and other proponents of the legislation, urged lawmakers to consider the known health risks of polystyrene foam, as well as the environmental concerns of using a material that doesn’t break down easily.
But opponents in the Senate, and in prior House debates, decried the legislation as governmental overreach and asked for free-market solutions to handle the problem.
HB 477, introduced by Rep. Marilyn Marler, D-Missoula, provides for a phase out of expanded polystyrene foam — commonly called styrofoam — containers used to serve or package food from restaurants and food establishment, including coffee cups, plates, trays, and other food and drink carriers. The law would affect roughly 7,500 establishments in Montana, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
The bill creates a three-step process for the phaseout beginning in 2028 with the use of styrofoam containers used to serve food consumed on site. The next year it expands to packaging prepared food, and in 2030 will apply to food packagers and include bakery items and other prepared food. The Department of Environmental Quality would be tasked with ensuring compliance with the rule and issuing fines.
House lawmakers passed the bill 56-44 in March, and the Senate on Saturday passed the bill 26-24.
In Zolnikov’s microwave example, he asked lawmakers to contemplate a meal of pork carnitas, ordered as takeout from a favorite restaurant, a delicious dish that is hot, fatty and acidic.
Those three conditions enhance the leaching of chemicals into food, increasing the amount ingested, and contributing to the growing number of microplastics found in all human bodies, including newborn babies.
In addition, styrene and other chemicals found in food packaging have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption and other chronic health conditions.
“The thing is, consumers assume our food and food storage products are safe and healthy, and when we realize they aren’t, we take action, or we’re supposed to,” Zolnikov said.
The bill applies only to styrofoam in the food service industry — not its use in transportation, construction or health and safety industries. It also exempts “raw, uncooked meat, fish, or eggs,” where styrofoam is often used as an insulator to keep those items cold, lowering the risk of chemical leaching.
Despite the health concerns — widely agreed on by lawmakers — several Senators opposed the bill for its overreach into people’s lives.
“You should not be heating up food in your microwave in a styrofoam container, in a plastic container, on melamine plates, just about anything, except maybe glass. What you should be doing, if you’re concerned about your health and your kids’ health and your grandkids’ health, heat it up in a frying pan. Not a frying pan with Teflon in it. A good old cast iron frying pan,” said Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, adding that he felt such a law should be the role of the federal government. “That’s the problem with this bill. There are so many other products out there that are causing harm to our health … I don’t like styrofoam either, but this isn’t the answer.”
Eleven other states have passed similar statewide laws, as have numerous local governments.
Other opponents raised concerns that the bill might set a precedent to expand to other industries in the future, while proponents expounded on the environmental benefits.
“I’ve seen them floating in ponds or water. I’ve seen fish eating the particles that break up,” Sen. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula said. “…You also will see birds picking up styrofoam, using it in nests and other places eating it as well. And so there’s other things that styrofoam is actually impacting, not just on the food service side.”
The bill was amended in a Senate committee to extend the phase-out timeframe from five to 10 years, but the Senate body changed the bill back to its original form on the floor.
“If all those arguments aren’t enough to get everybody to vote yes on this, I’ve got a few more,” said Sen. Bruce “Butch” Gillespie, R-Ethbridge, who brought the amendment on the floor. He said that businesses in Montana could manufacture biodegradable packaging using sustainable sources such as hemp. “Let this be the beginnings of a whole new industry for Montana here.”
HB 477 contains a process for a business to request a waiver if they can show undue hardship, such as finding no suitable alternatives for food packaging. A fiscal note for the bill also shows the state would fund a half-time employee to develop and oversee the exemption program.
“We have chemicals in our food, we have chemicals touching our food, we are being poisoned in more ways than we know,” Zolnikov said. “This is an easy way to say if the feds aren’t gonna do it, we’re gonna do it. We’re gonna phase it out.”
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