Bergen Girl Scouts Urge Business Owners To Say 'No' To Styrofoam

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Girl Scouts and others from Leonia are rallying against Styrofoam and rewarding businesses who don't use the substance.

More than 75 people, many of them children, met at the Leonia Public Library Saturday for a presentation on the harms caused by polystyrene foam by the Leonia Action Alliance.

The Leonia Action Alliance, a grassroots activist group, had children break up pieces of Styrofoam and place them in a tank with plastic fish to demonstrate how bits of the substance are eaten by animals and fish and enter the food chain.

Girl Scouts fanned out downtown after the presentation and asked store owners if they used Styrofoam. If they do, store owners were given a pamphlet with information about Styrofoam in English, Korean, Chinese and Spanish and its dangers.

If stores did not use Styrofoam, store owners are awarded a "Styrofoam-Free" certificate and a sticker to place in their windows. One store owner pledged to stop using the substance immediately.

"I was so surprised," said Hannah Carroll, 10.

The Girl Scouts will continue their anti-styrofoam campaign through Oct. 21.

The Girl Scouts urged the Leonia Board of Education last month to stop using Styrofoam. District officials recently announced that Anna C. Scott Elementary School would use non-Styrofoam food trays.

The campaign will culminate Oct. 21 with a drive to collect Styrofoam from households and businesses. Girl Scouts will collect Styrofoam at Wood Park from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on that date. It will be taken to a facility that recycles Styrofoam.

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Photo: Girl Scouts walk downtown and distribute materials about the dangers of Styrofoam. Courtesy of Lisa Cullen