Before Brookline's recent town meeting, considering a ban on polystyrene foam containers, one town meeting member, a well known liberal lawyer, commented that he would support the ban whether it was environmentally sound or not, so that Brookline could set an example. The example Brookline sets is one of foolishness. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brookline did not perform any sort of environmental study to find out whether a ban would be helpful or harmful. The outcome would depend heavily on how Brookline disposes of solid waste and on what might replace polystyrene foam, which Brookline makes no attempt to influence. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Athough the town touts its recycling program, actually it does not recycle any polystyrene or most other plastics. Instead, those materials are burned in a large municipal waste incinerator. The ban will almost surely result in burning other, more expensive materials. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The likely alternatives take more energy to produce and distribute than polystyrene foam. Because of that, they use more nonrenewable resources, and they cause more air pollution. In practical circumstances, none of them are biodegradable, and in any event all are fated to be burned rather than recycled.