Last November the first of two votes successfully occurred involving the banning of Styrofoam, in San Francisco. A second vote will determine whether or not this will become a law for the city. That vote will take place June 1. This law may also include the banning of non-biodegradable plastic bags as well.

If any of the people reading this follow the news you will hear mention of this made here and there, and there will be more coverage of these landmark decisions as June 1 draws even closer.

The reason that I bring this up is because this campus uses these products in excess. The bookstore uses numerous non-biodegradable bags everyday for the purchases we make. The cafeteria uses Styrofoam containers to serve us our food. Both of these products we just throw away when we are done, without a second guess.

The problem with these products is that they do not break down and continuously pollute the environment. Styrofoam is already banned in a few places; the city of Berkeley has banned Styrofoam products for over 20 years. This campus should be the next one to do it.

There are only a handful of college campuses that do ban Styrofoam containers and Skyline can be the next one to do so, and with just cause. Skyline is very close to the ocean, and Styrofoam is known to be a major cause of death amongst marine mammals and fish. It is also damaging to land creatures as well, including humans. Using Styrofoam for food and drink containers can leave trace elements of the toxin styrene in the human digestive system.

It is imperative that Skyline make a move to ban Styrofoam on campus, so we may be a model for the rest of the peninsula to do the same. I have said it before and I will say it again, changes starts on college campuses, so make a change for a better, cleaner environment and get rid of Styrofoam on campus.

If not for the environment, do it for our health. Skyline is already working to cut out trans fats from our diets, why not add Styrene to that list as well.