FREEPORT (AP) – An unusual local ordinance adopted more than a decade ago will force Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc. to rethink how it packages meat and other food items when it opens a 63,500-square-foot store here next fall.

The ordinance, believed to be unique in Maine, prohibits businesses in Freeport from serving or selling prepared food or meat, eggs, baked goods or other food in polystyrene foam containers.

The Freeport Town Council adopted the measure in late 1989 at a time when serious concerns were being raised about the manufacture of polystyrene foam, a petroleum-based material believed to contribute to ozone depletion.

At a recent Planning Board meeting, a Shaw’s representative told Freeport officials that the store off Interstate 95 would comply with all state and local ordinances, including the town’s ban on polystyrene containers.

“It’s not up to them whether they want to adhere to the ordinance,” said Donna Larson, the town planner. “Those are the rules and they’re going to have to live with them.”

Terry Donilon, a Shaw’s spokesman, said the company was reviewing its options on how to proceed. “We take great care in building our stores to meet the needs of the surrounding communities,” Donilon said.

The Freeport store is one of three new Shaw’s stores planned for southern Maine. The others will be in Wiscasset and a large, new complex in Brunswick.

The ban on polystyrene containers was suggested by a group of 9- and 10-year-old children in Freeport, calling themselves Concerns About Kids’ Environment. Their original target was McDonald’s and the Styrofoam containers it used to package fast-food burgers and drinks.

Two of the children, Anna Brown and Bridget Sullivan-Stevens, appeared on NBC’s “Today Show,” questioned by Bryant Gumbel.

“I was just starting to gain consciousness then about environmental threats, and I guess I was afraid what might happen to the world if something didn’t change,” said Brown, now 23. “Rather than just talk about our fears, we decided to take action.”

Brown works for the Quaker United Nations Office in New York. Reached last week in San Francisco, on her way back from a conference on clean water in Kyoto, Japan, Brown said she is gratified that the Styrofoam ordinance is still on the books and being enforced.

“If McDonald’s can change its policies, Shaw’s can,” she said.

AP-ES-03-31-03 0216EST