Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation on Tuesday that makes the state the first to ban businesses from selling or distributing products made of Styrofoam, also known as polystyrene foam.

"Polystyrene cannot be recycled like a lot of other products, so while that cup of coffee may be finished, the Styrofoam cup it was in is not," Mills said in a statement, according to The Boston Herald . "In fact, it will be around for decades to come and eventually it will break down into particles, polluting our environment, hurting our wildlife, and even detrimentally impacting our economy," she said.

More than 256 million pieces of disposable foam cups, plates, bowls, platters and trays are used every year in Maine, the Natural Resources Council of Maine said in a news release after Mills, a Democrat, signed the bill. Businesses, including restaurants and grocery stores, will have to switch to eco-friendly alternatives.

"Maine has proven itself an environmental leader once again, this time in eliminating disposable foam containers that have become a common, costly and deadly form of plastic pollution," said Sarah Lakeman, director of NRCM's Sustainable Maine project.

More than a dozen Maine towns have already banned disposable food containers, according to the organization.

The law, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021, also prohibits the sale of plastic beverage stirrers, CNN reported .

Maine is the first state to ban Styrofoam, though a similar bill now sits at the desk of Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, and New York and California have banned single-use plastic bags.