Plastics

Two Los Angeles City Council committees gave their preliminary endorsement Friday to a ban on a type of plastic foam container commonly used by fast-food restaurants. The committees, meeting in a special joint session, voted unanimously to instruct the city attorney to draw up an ordinance that would ban the manufacture, sale or use of plastic foam products manufactured with chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, a gas that scientists believe breaks down the ozone layer of the atmosphere.

A 10-ton machine capable of detecting plastic explosives hidden in luggage arrived Tuesday at New York's Kennedy International Airport, representing the newest generation in anti-terrorism technology. The $1.1-million thermal neutron analysis (TNA) device is billed as the first machine available to automatically detect the type of plastic explosives believed to have caused the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, last year, killing 270 people.

The Senate on Friday rejected legislation restricting so-called "plastic guns," which, proponents of the ban say, may escape detection by metal detectors and X-ray security machines used in airports. The Senate voted 47 to 42 to table an amendment that Sens. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) and Strom Thurmond (R-S. C.) had attached to a measure authorizing funds for the Veterans Administration.

The Senate voted Wednesday to outlaw the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns made from plastic or other materials that could pass through metal detectors. The legislation, primarily aimed at terrorists and air pirates, also would require that all toy guns have orange plugs in their barrels so they cannot be mistaken for real weapons. "There is no doubt that in the hands of terrorists and other criminals, undetectable weapons are a clear threat," said Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.

President Reagan signed a bill banning the manufacture, sale or possession of plastic guns or any other firearms that can elude detection. Although such guns are not currently on the market, experts estimate they could be developed shortly, but the ability to detect such a device is years away. The bill covers any firearm that cannot be detected by a walk-through metal detector, but it exempts any gun that has been certified by the Pentagon or the Central Intelligence Agency.

The House, moving to control the threat of terrorist weapons that have yet to be developed, gave final approval Thursday to legislation controlling the manufacture, sale and use of all-plastic weapons that could elude metal detectors in airports and public buildings. The bill, which was approved on a voice vote, was passed earlier by the Senate. It now goes to President Reagan, who is expected to sign it into law.

The Justice Department, ending a long silence by the Reagan Administration on the issue, endorsed legislation Wednesday to ban plastic guns unless they contain enough metal to set off metal detectors. After months of internal debate in the Administration, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III promised Sen. James A. McClure (R-Ida.), "the enthusiastic support of the Justice Department" for his legislation on undetectable plastic guns.

An experiment with plastic bricks by an Encino church may give Caltrans the ability to build lighter, cheaper sound walls to contain the noise of freeway traffic. Bethel Lutheran Church is building a 13-foot-high wall of polyurethane bricks between the Ventura Freeway and the church and its school, the first use of the lightweight blocks for a sound wall in the United States, according to the state Department of Transportation and the manufacturer of the blocks.