A few weeks have passed since the end of the Missouri legislative session. Efforts to remedy the “which plastic is this?” cooler comedy of chemical errors from 2009 died in committee in both houses of the Missouri General Assembly in 2010, so fans of polystyrene (trade name Styrofoam) coolers can relax for another year.

House Bill 1744 and Senate Bill 941 are the ones to watch if you’re concerned about polystyrene coolers on Missouri’s rivers.
HB 1744, introduced by David Day of Dixon, and SB 941 by Dan Clemens, Marshfield, contain three nearly identical provisions having to do with boat recreation on Missouri’s rivers and lakes.

There’s been much hay made in the media the last few days about the Missouri legislature inadvertently banning polyproplyene containers, not the expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) coolers they intended to from the state’s waterways (exception for Lake of the Ozarks, and the big rivers, where the legislature plays, of course.)