Plastic foam is quickly disappearing from Peninsula cities, a trend Weekly readers approve of: "No Styrofoam" was named the best green trend of 2010 in our Best Of Monterey County Readers Poll.

On April 6, Monterey County may catch the wave. The county Board of Supervisors will hear the second reading of an ordinance outlawing polystyrene food packaging in the county's unincorporated areas.

At the ordinance's first reading on March 23, Supervisor Jane Parker asked that the grace period for food retailers to use up their existing Styrofoam stashes be changed from one year to six months. The Board decided to consider the change at the April 6 meeting. 

All the local cities that have adopted polystyrene bans - Carmel-by-the-Sea, Pacific Grove, Monterey, Seaside and Del Rey Oaks - have enacted six-month grace periods.

To help with the transition, the Monterey Regional Waste Management District is offering Seaside restaurants free "starter kits" with six months' worth of biodegradable packaging.

The county's April 6 polystyrene hearing, the second scheduled matter on the agenda, is expected to begin around 10:45-11:30am, Supervisors' Chamber, 168 West Alisal St., 1st floor, Salinas.