There's really no time left for debate. NYS has to decrease our dependence on, and use of, petroleum-based products. We also must get a better handle on decreasing solid waste because NYC has no good answers about where to move it or how to get rid of it—in particular environmentally dangerous items.

One way to do both, at least in part, is to ban styrofoam and polystyrene products. And this week I have introduced a bill to do just that.

Picture styrofoam, and you picture a product produced from petroleum that takes up to 500 years to fully disintegrate, which is devastating to our environment. Think about this--that cup you may have grabbed a quick drink from on July 4th will outlive you by hundreds of years.

Fully 30% of the waste currently in landfills is from various Styrofoam products. We put so much Styrofoam into our waste stream, that the cups just Americans toss each year would, if laid end to end, circle the globe more than 430 times. That is 1,369 tons of Styrofoam every day—and Styrofoam is not exactly a heavy product.