Legislative Branch Appropriations Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. CALVERT. I thank the Chairman.

My friend's--and he is my friend, Mr. Moran--amendment is certainly misguided and costly and a step backwards. Let's talk about the facts.

The House composting program in the last Congress increased our operating costs by half a million dollars a year, all for the luxury of using, remember, weak utensils that literally melted in your soup, and ineffective cups, soda cups, not including the extra paper insulators to keep your hands from burning once you use those ineffective paper cups. The cups, by the way, were two to three times more expensive than polystyrene foam cups.

And the environmental benefits. Peer reviewed studies confirm that foam food and beverage containers--which are recyclable and, by the way, are still used by McDonalds--use significantly less energy and water than their supposed eco-friendly alternatives. They use fewer raw materials, create less solid waste, and the carbon emission differences are nominal.

If Mr. Moran would like to eliminate polystyrene in the House he needs to be right upfront with the American people and let them know how much this is going to cost them. In fact, this product costs less and is a better product. And I think that's something that we ought to do here in the government is find ways of saving money and produce a better outcome.

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