Last year, Greenfield voters said in a referendum that while they like take-out food, they weren’t crazy about the polystyrene foam containers used by many restaurants and other vendors.

This coming week, Greenfield Town Council is scheduled to act on that voter sentiment by considering a ban on this type of container for all retail food and/or beverage establishments. While the 13 councilors ponder which way they’ll vote on the proposed ordinance, we can’t help but think there’s an opportunity here to do more to reduce trash from polystyrene foam products, aka Styrofoam.

The proposed ban only addresses a particular use. It does not take into account the businesses that, for instance, use these containers to ship products out of town. Nor does it prevent consumers from going to a store to buy plastic foam cups, plates, bowls or other items for use in their homes.

And this ordinance does not address all of the non-food polystyrene packaging, including the “Styrofoam peanuts” that are used to cushion items inside cardboard boxes.

These, too, are forms of polystyrene foam that too often wind up in the landfill or become litter.

But we don’t think that a ban is the way to go to solve this issue.

Instead, Greenfield could become more active in bringing polystyrene recycling to town.

Right now those options are limited. The UPS Stores will take clean packing peanuts. There are businesses around the country that accept Styrofoam packages, and there are organizations, like The EPS Industry Alliance, that can help the consumer find recycling locations.

But if Greenfield wants to get serious about making a dent in polystyrene waste, taking a leadership role here makes sense.

Such an effort might be as simple as joining forces with the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District to establish a place where residents could drop off their polystyrene material for recycling. Right now there appears to be only one such business, in Framingham, that specializes in this type of recycling.

But that’s just one possibility. The town, with help from the waste district and Greening Greenfield, could explore this idea.

The council’s next week can start this conversation about making a food container ban just the first part of an expanding campaign.