Maine law squeezing out kids' juice boxes

PORTLAND A back-to-school quiz: What lunch box fixture will behistory in school lunchrooms across Maine?

Answer: The juice box. State lawmakers have outlawed thesingle-serving container because the bonded layers of plastic, paperand aluminum that keep the contents fresh defy recycling.

Maine's unique ban on the sale of most beverages in asepticpackaging takes effect tomorrow as children prepare for the start ofclasses and parents think about what to put in the lunch boxes.

By all accounts, the timing of the law was coincidental.Nevertheless, it has left parents wondering how to replace the drinkspacked in containers that come with straws.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Linda Ball of Portlandsaid as her 3-year-old son, Billy, selected a three-pack of fruitjuice at a supermarket. "Those glass things," she said, pointing to anearby display of single-serving juice bottles. "We're afraid they'llhurt his teeth."

Still, Ball and other parents who stocked up on the popularjuice boxes before the ban was to take effect indicated they wereprepared to sacrifice the convenience if it would counter Maine'sbuildup of solid waste.

"I'm concerned about the environment, so I'll make do withsomething else if it's that much of a problem," Ball said.

Supermarkets also say they no longer will have the variety offruit juices and punches available. Cans or bottles take up moreshelf space and have higher handling costs than "brick packs" ofboxes.

"We estimate that it's going to cost consumers in Maine 17 centsmore . . . for each single item they purchase," said Margaret McEwen,consumer information director at Shaw's Supermarkets.

Juice boxes have surged in popularity since they were introducedto U.S. supermarkets in the early 1980s. Their advantages areobvious: less weight, safer than metal or glass, easy to stash inbackpacks and lunch boxes. And they are easily crushed anddiscarded.

But the boxes have become a prime target of environmentalistsbecause they replace containers that can be recycled with currenttechnology, said Jeanne Wirka of the Environmental Action Foundationin Washington.

Maine, with a goal of recycling half its solid waste by 1994,banned the boxes in an expansion of a law enacted more than a decadeago to require deposits on bottles and cans of soda and beer.

The revised law made all beverage containers, except for dairyproducts, subject to deposits. Liquor bottles came under the law inJanuary, wine bottles are returnable effective tomorrow and all othernoncarbonated beverage containers will require deposits by year'send.