Styrofoam is a major source of ocean pollution. It breaks down into micro-plastic pieces that literally take thousands of years to fully decompose.

The manufacture of polystyrene foam of all types has been identified as a major contributor to the depletion of the earth’s ozone layer and thus is a long-term menace to the public health. Polystyrene foam products used for prepared food packaging are hereby declared a public nuisance. (Ord. 2020-09 § 1). On April 13th, 2020, Lincoln City’s City Council adopted ordinance 2020-09 declaring foam polystyrene (Styrofoam) plastic food and other containers a public nuisance. The use of these containers has been prohibited. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the effective date of the ordinance was delayed by a year. This was done to give restaurants time to shift to environmentally friendly containers.

The ban on foam polystyrene containers went into effect on April 13th, 2021. In order to give businesses additional time to use up existing foam container stock, enforcement of the plastic foam food container ban was be delayed by an additional 90 days.

After July 13th, 2021, the ban on foam polystyrene food containers will be enforced.

• Lincoln City Ordinance 2020-09 Nuisance - Polystyrene Foam
• Lincoln City Municipal Code 8.11 Nuisance - Polystyrene Foam

Violations of this chapter shall be deemed a Class C violation and shall be subject to citation and punishable as set forth in Chapter 1.16 LCMC. (Ord. 2020-09 § 1)

View the Lincoln City Code Enforcement page for more information regarding Code Enforcement. This includes who performs it and an online Code Enforcement Portal to report violation.

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