Is styrofoam banned in Australia?

Have you ever noticed that your fish and chips don’t come in that squeaky white foam container anymore? Or how your local servo has swapped out foam cups for paper ones? Turns out that’s not a coincidence. Expanded polystyrene (the stuff that most of us call Styrofoam) has been getting quietly banned across the country. 

For readers born before the millennium, you’ll remember that the stuff used to be absolutely everywhere. We’re talking coffee cups, meat trays, takeaway clamshells (did you know that’s what they were called?), and even those little packing peanuts. Now Styrofoam is very much on the way out – and there are some very good reasons for this. Here’s what you need to know.

What actually is Styrofoam?

Let’s start with a quick mythbuster, shall we? “Styrofoam” is actually a brand name, but much like Esky and Band-Aid, we’ve all ended up using it as a catch-all for that white, squeaky foam stuff. The proper name, if you care about such things, is expanded polystyrene (or EPS for short).

The crazy thing is, EPS is about 98% air. The rest is just polystyrene, a plastic made from a chemical called styrene, which is ultimately derived from crude oil. Polystyrene became so widely used because such a small amount of actual material was needed. You just puff it up with air and voila, you’ve got the cheapest, lightest, ecological nightmare money can buy. 

Why is polystyrene so bad?

There are two main reasons. The first is about the environment, the second is about human health. 

The environmental side is the really big one. Polystyrene doesn’t biodegrade – not in any timeframe that matters anyway. Instead, it just breaks down into teeny-weeny pieces to become microplastics that hang around basically forever. And because it’s so light, it blows out of bins and landfill sites until coming to rest in our oceans and rivers.

The health side is also an important point, though it is debated by various health organisations. Styrene (the building block of polystyrene) is listed by the US National Toxicology Program as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," and in 2018 the World Health Organization's cancer agency classified it as "probably carcinogenic to humans." 

The general understanding is that, unless you happen to work in a factory that produces the stuff, EPS is a material to treat with caution. It has been known to leach into food, especially hot, oily, or acidic food. So you should never heat your leftovers in a foam container. 

Is Styrofoam banned in Australia?

Mostly, yes. But as with seemingly all of our most sensible environmental reforms, it is happening state-by-state and progressing at a snail's pace. This is where it stands in each state and territory:

It’s worth knowing that these bans are specific to food service items such as your cups, clamshells, and plates. Protective packaging (like the moulded foam around a new TV), cold-chain foam (like medicine transport), and building insulation are mostly still allowed. 

What can we use instead?

Once a ban on a form of single-use plastics is in place, greener alternatives instantly start popping up as businesses and people are forced to adapt. This has been the case with polystyrene as well. Here are a couple easy swaps:

• Using a KeepCup style cup beats a foam one every time (some cafes even give you a discount for it).

• Go for moulded fibre or certified compostable containers instead – this is what most takeaway joints have already switched to.

How should you dispose of Styrofoam?

Since you’ll still run into EPS in packaging and other formats: polystyrene goes in your general waste (red) bin. It’s not accepted in kerbside recycling, so please don’t pop it in the yellow bin hoping for the best.

If you've got a big load of it (say, from a house move or a new appliance), some transfer stations and specialist businesses will take clean EPS and compress it down for recycling. Worth a quick Google of your local options if you'd rather not landfill it.

Conclusion

Styrofoam had a run (we won’t call it good), but its days are numbered in Australia and we’re pretty happy to see it go. And when it does turn up? You know the drill. Red bin, every time. If you’re sorting the rest of your waste properly too, we’ve got a bin for that.