Makers of Food Containers to Drop CFCs
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WASHINGTON — Companies using ozone-destroying chemicals to make plastic foam food packaging will switch to other compounds by the end of the year, their trade association said today.
While such use accounts for only 1.5% to 2% of the U.S. production of the chemicals in question, chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, some environmentalists have targeted food packages as a highly visible and unessential use of the CFCs.
The environmentalists already had won pledges from fast-food chains not to use CFC-made products.
About one-third of foam packages--things like egg cartons and clamshell hamburger containers--are made with CFCs, Joseph Bow, president of the Foodservice and Packaging Institute, said at a news conference.
The program is voluntary on the part of the companies, but Bow said none was expected to refuse to participate.
The replacement compound has only about 5% of the ozone-destroying potential of the CFCs it replaces.
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