Millions of homeowners could refinance and save big

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Nearly one in five homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments have loans with interest rates of 8% and higher -- nearly double today's rates of around 4%, according to nonprofit community development group NeighborWorks America.

The government recently launched a campaign to convince those most at risk to take the leap. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, nearly 770,000 homeowners are eligible for cheaper loans through its Home Affordable Refinance Program. Refinancing through that program could save homeowners an average of $200 a month, or $2,400 a year, the agency said.

Even homeowners who aren't struggling to make payments could benefit. Overall, there are 7.4 million mortgage borrowers in the U.S. with rates of 4.5% or higher who could qualify for -- and benefit from -- refinancing their mortgages, according to Black Knight Financial Services, a mortgage analytics company.

Quiz: How much do you know about mortgages?

So why haven't homeowners acted?

It's a combination of procrastination and fear, according to study from the University of Chicago and Brigham Young University.

"Deciding to refinance is a complex decision," said University of Chicago professor Benjamin Keys, one of the authors of the study.

Related: 10 hottest housing markets for 2025

Many borrowers have heard horror stories from friends and neighbors who refinanced in the past, sometimes into predatory loans, he said.

Some borrowers who tried to refinance found the process "time consuming and confusing," said Jeanne Fekade-Sellassie, a senior vice president for NeighborWorks. "Others don't believe they qualify."

For borrowers who manage to make their payments, status quo seems to be working, so why risk change?

And then there are distressed borrowers who have been in and out of default for years, meeting with harried foreclosure counselors, dealing with unsympathetic lenders, compiling paperwork over and over. All of this to save homes that may be worth a lot less than the amount the borrowers owe.

Related: Best cities for millennial home buyers

Still, no matter how difficult the process, the savings can be worth the headache.

At 4%, borrowers who have a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a $200,000 balance would save more than $300 a month, compared with someone who has the same loan at a 6.5% rate. For those who are currently paying 8%, the savings comes to more than $500 a month.

Keys said the huge savings from refinancing may sound too good to be true to some. But the savings are real.

"It's a real shame if people miss out on the opportunity," he said.

First Published: December 30, 2014: 5:26 PM ET

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The only funds you need in your portfolio now

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A lot of people have the mistaken impression that to successfully invest for retirement you've got to assemble a portfolio of at least a half dozen or more mutual funds or ETFs.

That's nonsense.

The number of funds you own isn't nearly as important as the types of securities your funds own. And if you choose funds that hold a broad range of stocks and bonds and work in synch with each other, you can put together a well-diversified portfolio with two or three funds, or in some cases, just one.

Of course, some advisers will suggest that you're missing out unless you spread your money among all manner of exotic investments (which they're more than happy to sell you). But the more complicated your portfolio is, the more expensive and more prone to blow-ups it's likely to be -- which also increases the odds that it will generate subpar returns.

Related: Get your portfolio ready for 2015 and beyond

Which is why I suggest that as you review your investment strategy for the New Year and beyond, you consider a streamlined approach that allows you to get by with lower fees and fewer funds.

How few? Below you'll find my recommendations for three simple but effective diversified retirement portfolios consisting of three funds or less.

THE THREE-FUND DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO

To create this portfolio, simply invest in the following three funds (or their ETF equivalents): a total U.S. stock market fund, a total international stock market fund and a total U.S bond market fund.

Do that, and you'll gain exposure to virtually every type of publicly traded stock in the world (large and small, growth and value, domestic and foreign, all industries and sectors), as well as the entire U.S. investment-grade taxable bond market (short- to long-term maturities, corporates, Treasuries and mortgage-backed issues).

You can buy such funds and ETFs directly from any number of investment firms, including biggies like Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard, all of which sell their own funds and ETFs or those of other firms, such as iShares, or both. If you're working with an adviser, he or she can buy these funds on your behalf.

Related: The best way to invest for retirement income

The annual fee you'll pay will vary depending on which firm's funds or ETFs you choose. (If you go with ETFs, you may also incur a brokerage charge, although several firms are currently waiving commissions and transaction fees on at least some ETFs.)

But you should easily be able to assemble a portfolio for an annual fee of 0.20%, or $20 per $10,000 invested, if not less. If you invest through an adviser, he or she will charge a separate fee.

THE TWO-FUND DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO

This portfolio is identical to the one above, except for one difference: it skips the total international stock fund.

Some pros may argue that jettisoning foreign stocks makes no sense, especially since we live in such a global world. But others, including Vanguard founder and low-fee zealot Jack Bogle, argue that you can get along fine without international shares.

I'm agnostic on this issue. Diversifying internationally should typically make your portfolio a bit less volatile since foreign markets don't always move in synch with U.S. stocks. But holding foreign shares isn't likely to offer shelter during major meltdowns, as virtually all markets move together in times of extreme duress.

If for whatever reason you're antsy about owning foreign shares or you just like to keep it simple by sticking to domestic equities, I don't think going with a USA-all-the-way portfolio is going to interfere with you achieving your goals.

THE ONE-FUND DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO

If you really don't want to be bothered putting together a portfolio, then a target-date retirement fund may be the solution. You choose a fund with a target year that roughly corresponds to the year you plan to retire (2015, 2020, 2025, whatever) and you get a ready-made mix of domestic and foreign stock and bond funds suitable for someone your age.

What's more, the fund automatically follows a "glide path," shifting into bonds each year and becoming more conservative as you approach and enter retirement.

You may end up paying a slightly higher annual fee for this portfolio-in-a-fund than you would by putting together the two- or three-fund portfolio option above. But you should easily be able to keep your annual expenses below 1% a year. And if you go for an all-index-fund target fund like Vanguard's, you'll pay less than 0.20% annually.

Related: Ditch the "Number" and find a realistic retirement savings goal

If you go with the two- or three-fund portfolio, you'll also have to decide how to divvy up your money between stocks and bonds. That's largely a matter of balancing your appetite for risk (which you can determine by completing a risk tolerance questionnaire) against the size returns you'll need to build an adequate nest egg or, if you're already retired, assure that your savings will sustain you throughout retirement. By plugging different blends of stocks and bonds (as well as different spending rates) into this retirement income calculator, you can get a good sense of which mix is right for you.

Since stocks and bonds typically don't deliver identical returns from year to year, you may have to rebalance your two- or three-fund portfolio to restore it to the right mix. Every few years or so, you may also want to reassess your risk tolerance and goals, just to make sure you're still okay with whatever stocks-bonds mix you originally set.

But aside from this sort of routine maintenance, you really don't need to do much with any of these portfolios. Just sit back and reap the benefits of the broad diversification each has to offer.

Walter Updegrave is the editor of RealDealRetirement.com. If you have a question on retirement or investing that you would like Walter to answer online, send it to him at walter@realdealretirement.com.

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First Published: December 30, 2014: 5:31 PM ET

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Crippling hack forced Sony to use old BlackBerrys

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Executives also used the tried-and-true tactic for relaying messages: a phone tree.

CEO Michael Lynton told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday that it took him more than a day to fully understand the severity of the attack.

It was crippling.

Hackers stole troves of data, leaking movies and internal documents exposing private company memos, along with employees' salaries, Social Security numbers and health information.

Plus, the company's entire computer system was down during the week of Thanksgiving. Here's some of the ways workers coped, a Sony spokesman told CNNMoney:

• Execs set up a phone tree, so they could update each other about the hack. One person would relay the message to the next person on the "tree."

• Employees used personal cellphones, Gmail accounts and notepads.

• Paychecks were cut manually.

• Old BlackBerrys, which operate on a different server, were revived to send emails.

The FBI has presented evidence that North Korea was behind the hack. It came just before Sony was about to release "The Interview," a comedy about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

But some security experts hackers and people familiar with Sony's computer networks aren't so sure it was North Korea that pulled it off.

Related: What we know about the Sony hack

First Published: December 30, 2014: 8:34 PM ET

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Newsweek finds Christianity again with its latest cover

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But religious-themed cover stories have long been a hallmark of the publication, and Jesus, in particular, has been a recurring figure.

Before the turn of the century, the magazine explored "2000 Years of Jesus."

When Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was at the center of the national conversation in 2004, former editor Jon Meacham asked, "Who Killed Jesus?"

Around Christmas time that year, Newsweek's cover story analyzed the "birth of Jesus."

During the Easter season in 2005, Meacham, no stranger to divinity studies, penned a cover story titled, "How Jesus Became Christ: From Resurrection to the Rise."

Jesus continued His familiar place on Newsweek's covers under the leadership of former editor-in-chief Tina Brown, appearing on three covers in 2012 alone.

One of them, by the blogger Andrew Sullivan urged readers to "Forget The Church" and "Follow Jesus" in a cover story that featured an indelible shot of the Messiah dressed as a twenty-something - or "Hipster Jesus" as the Atlantic Wire described it.

Newsweek's cover archives only go back to the beginning of 2013, but the prevalence of the Jesus-centric covers has been preserved by other outlets, including the now-shuttered Atlantic Wire.

Rival magazine TIME has earned a similar reputation, with many past covers years closely paralleling Newsweek's. But like Newsweek, Time ran only one cover story on Christian themes in 2014: an April issue featuring an interview with Pastor Barbara Brown Taylor.

Other Christian figures show up on newsstands, too. The Virgin Mary has appeared on Newsweek's cover multiple times, and Mary Magdalene actually made the cover in 2003 and again in 2006, each story piggybacking on the blockbuster novel-turned-blockbuster movie "The Da Vinci Code."

What's united many of Newsweek's covers is the perception that they're motivated not by news value, but by magazine sales.

Pastor Rick Warren was one of many to accuse Newsweek's editors of cynical intentions when he took aim at Sullivan's piece in 2012. "I think it's disingenuous that magazines like 'Newsweek' know that their circulation goes up at Christmas and Easter if they put a spiritual issue on the cover, but it's always bait and switch," Warren told CNN's Jake Tapper, then with ABC News.

Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, offered a similar explanation.

"The short answer is that those articles typically get a good response and they sell very well," Edmonds told CNNMoney on Monday.

And while he said those covers aren't necessarily the most "newsy," Edmonds did say that the stories often tackle issues typically untouched by mainstream newspapers and television outlets.

Newsweek's latest cover story, by Kurt Eichenwald and published online the day before Christmas Eve, continues that tradition. It is headlined "The Bible: So Misunderstood it's a Sin," and calls out"God's frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch."

Critics have contended that Eichenwald was out of his depth. RedState editor-in-chief Erick Erickson, who enrolled in seminary earlier this year, said that Eichenwald "displays staggering ignorance to attack Christianity."

Michael B. Dougherty, a senior correspondent for The Week, engaged in an extended back-and-forth on Twitter with Eichenwald on Christmas Day.

Eichenwald's polemic was bound to spur a dialogue (if not controversy) and, like previous Newsweek stories of that ilk, that appears to be the point. But Newsweek editor-in-chief James Impoco disputes the notion that the latest cover resembles previous issues.

"Seems you can't have it both ways -- accusing us of pandering for sales and stirring controversy," Impoco told CNNMoney in an email on Monday. "It's plain silly to put Kurt's examination of The Bible in the same category as a 90s style newsweekly Jesus cover. We were very aware of the cliche. In case you haven't noticed, The Bible is news."

First Published: December 29, 2014: 5:23 PM ET

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Why is United Airlines suing a 22-year-old?

22-year-old Aktarer Zaman founded Skiplagged.com last year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

United Airlines (UAL) and Orbitz (OWW) filed a civil lawsuit last month against 22-year-old Aktarer Zaman, who founded the website Skiplagged.com last year.

The site helps travelers find cheap flights by using a strategy called "hidden city" ticketing.

The idea is that you buy an airline ticket that has a layover at your actual destination. Say you want to fly from New York to San Francisco -- you actually book a flight from New York to Lake Tahoe with a layover in San Francisco and get off there, without bothering to take the last leg of the flight.

Related: Airlines get $1 billion from baggage fees

This travel strategy only works if you book a one-way flight with no checked bags (they would have landed in Lake Tahoe).

It's not like these tickets are the cheapest all the time, but they often are.

In the lawsuit, United and Orbitz call Skiplagged "unfair competition" and allege that it is promoting "strictly prohibited" travel. They want to recoup $75,000 in lost revenue from Zaman.

Zaman said he knew a lawsuit was inevitable but he points out that there's nothing illegal about his web site.

He also said he has made no profit via the website and that all he's done is help travelers get the best prices by exposing an "inefficiency" in airline prices that insiders have known about for decades.

"[Hidden city ticketing] have been around for a while, it just hasn't been very accessible to consumers," Zaman told CNNMoney.

Related: 6 products to keep the skies friendly

Indeed, "hidden city," ticketing is no secret among frequent fliers, said Michael Boyd, President of Boyd Group International, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Co. Boyd worked as an American Airline (AAL)ticket agent 30 years ago, and says he was trained at the airline to help customers find "hidden city" fares.

"I don't think it's illegal what he's doing," Boyd said. But lawsuits are expensive and it could end up costing the young entrepreneur who has irked the two billion dollar corporations.

Airlines usually offer cheaper fares for some destinations that are not regional hubs, Boyd said. Many of these flights are routed through more popular destinations. But if a lot of people take advantage of that discrepancy it could hurt the airlines, which is why they want to shut him down.

Related: 10 vacation experiences of a lifetime

Born in Bangladesh, Zaman grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science at age 20 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He lives in Manhattan and works at a technology start-up that he declined to name.

Zaman said Skiplagged is just a "side project."

Zaman and United declined to discuss the lawsuit. Orbitz said in a statement that it is obligated to uphold airline fare rules.

Other travel experts say that the airlines may not achieve much if Zaman's site is shut down, especially in a world where information is becoming more readily available.

"If [Skiplagged is] shut down, undoubtedly there will be other people to come along to scrape fares and make them available," said Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Company, an airline consulting firm in Port Washington, N.Y.

First Published: December 29, 2014: 4:39 PM ET

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Wealthy Russians aren't buying U.S. homes anymore

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Deep-pocketed Russian buyers have been disappearing since last spring when international sanctions were imposed on Russia.

Over the past few years, Russian buyers have been responsible for some of the flashiest purchases in New York, according to Gabby Warshawer, research director for CityRealty, a website specializing in New York City sales.

Among them: the record breaking $88 million purchase of a Central Park West condo by Ekaterina Rybolovlev, the daughter of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev; composer, Igor Krutoy's $48 million purchase of a duplex in the Plaza Hotel and the $38 million purchase of an apartment in Time Warner Center by businessman, Andrei Vavilov.

"This year, we haven't seen any of those chart-topping sales," said Warshawer.

Related: New York's most expensive rental costs $500,000 a month

Russian buyers were driving the ultra-high-end market in Florida as well, according to Danny Hertzberg, a Coldwell Banker agent with The Jills Group in Miami Beach.

The most expensive sale in Miami's history was a home that sold for $47 million in 2012 to an unidentified Russian buyer. But even that paled in comparison to the $95 million sale of Donald Trump's Palm Beach palace in 2010 to Dmitry Rybolovlev, the father of Ekaterina, the woman who bought that $88 million condo on Central Park West.

Donald Trump's Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach, Fla. sold to Dmitry Rybolovlev in a record-breaking deal.

Last spring, however, all of those deep-pocketed Russians seemed to disappear, said Hertzberg.

"It felt like it changed almost overnight," he said.

Related: 10 least affordable rental markets

The big drop off occurred right after the Russian government tightened its currency restrictions, making it difficult for Russian nationals to move large sums of money out of the country. It's now even getting to be a challenge for some to transfer the small amounts of cash they need to pay real estate taxes and maintenance costs, Hertzberg said.

It's difficult to know just how much of an impact the pullout of Russian buyers will have on markets like New York, said Warshawer. Not only do fair housing laws make it almost impossible to accurately track a buyer's nationality, but the buyer's identity may also be concealed since many of the most expensive properties get bought and sold through middle men and limited liability companies.

However, New York appraiser Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, isn't too concerned.

Related: New York's multi-million dollar condo sales keep soaring

"I kept hearing about Russians dominating New York's high-end market but they never really did," he said. "They just had the highest profiles."

But Hertzberg notes, the Russian buyers play another role, too. Like many other foreign clients, they were much more bullish on the U.S. real estate market during the housing bust than Americans were.

"Russians were willing to go well beyond what others would pay for trophy properties," said Hertzberg.

He thinks the rich Russian buyers will come back quickly if they can find a way to extract their wealth from the mother country.

"I hear from some Russian clients that the decline of the ruble has made them even more eager to buy here," he said.

First Published: December 29, 2014: 5:53 PM ET

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AirAsia CEO takes to Twitter fast in wake of tragedy

Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia.

(CNNMoney)

"This is my worse nightmare," CEO Tony Fernandes posted on Twitter as a search and rescue operation was underway. "My only thought(s) are with the (passengers) and my crew. We put our hope in the SAR operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," he wrote, referring to the search-and-rescue effort in the Java Sea along well-trafficked shipping routes.

That was one of a dozen tweets Fernandes sent or retweeted in the first 12 hours after Flight 8501 lost contact with air traffic controllers. The Airbus A320-200 was headed to Singapore from Indonesia with 162 on board, the airline said.

The posts were retweeted tens of thousands of times. Meanwhile, hashtags like "#AirAsia" and "#QZ8501," the flight's aviation code name, trended worldwide.

The CEO's messages were aimed at families of the passengers, his staff and the public.

"I as your group ceo will be there through these hard times. We will go through this terrible ordeal together and I will try to see as many of you," Fernandes wrote.

"Our priority is looking after all the next of Kin for my staff and (passengers). We will do whatever we can. We continue to pass information (as) it comes."

He called his team "all stars" and urged them to "be strong, continue to be the best. Pray hard. Continue to do your best for all our guests. See u all soon."

"I am touched by the massive show of support especially from my fellow airlines. This is my worse nightmare. But there is no stopping," he wrote.

The airline's official social media account responded, too. It posted regular updates to Twitter and Facebook. AirAsia changed its logo on social media from red to grey.

Fernandes has been with the company since its earliest days. In 2001, he and several partners bought an unprofitable air travel company -- it owned just two planes -- and turned it around, according to his company biography.

AirAsia's approach was in contrast to the way Malaysia Airlines handled the disappearance of its Flight 370 earlier this year. Malaysia Airlines was criticized by the passengers' families, who said they were given little information, and that some of what they were told was false.

Both companies are based in Malaysia.

--CNN's Yousuf Basil contributed to this report

First Published: December 28, 2014: 11:53 AM ET

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PlayStation Network back up after a cyberattack

(CNNMoney)

"PlayStation Network and some other gaming services were attacked over the holidays with artificially high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay," wrote Catherine Jensen, a vice president at Sony Entertainment, in an online post.

The FBI is investigating the outage, said agency spokeswoman Jenny Shearer.

Sony (SNE) said PSN for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PS Vita have been restored.

PSN connectivity has been spotty since initial outages on Christmas Eve.

By using the word "attack," the company indicated the outage was not simply the result of increased network volume or issues with new consoles.

"If you received a PlayStation console over the holidays and have been unable to log onto the network, know that this problem is temporary and is not caused by your game console," Jensen said.

Related: What we know about the massive Sony Pictures breach

A group of hackers who go by Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attack. CNNMoney can not independently verify their claims or identities.

The group claimed responsibility for a similar strike in August.

Sony's PSN wasn't the only gaming system outage. Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30)'s Xbox Live network also suffered connectivity issues, though the company said "we don't share info on the root cause of specific issues" and did not blame a cyberattack.

--CNN's Kevin Conlon contributed to this report.

Related: How PlayStation celebrated its 20th birthday

First Published: December 28, 2014: 10:18 AM ET

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'The Interview': $15 million, 2 million streams

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Sony Pictures said Sunday that the scandalous Seth Rogen comedy was "rented or purchased online more than 2 million times" between Wednesday, when it was released, and Saturday.

The totals do not include Sunday, when Rogen and others held a live-tweet session to further promote online streams of the movie.

"Total consumer spending through Saturday for The Interview online is over $15 million," Sony said in a statement. Earlier, studio executives would only say that rental numbers were strong.

That's far more than the movie made in theaters -- despite sold out showings in a patchwork of theaters across the country. Through Sunday, "The Interview" is expected to make about $2.8 million at the 331 independently-owned theaters that have been showing it since Christmas Day.

This is about in line with industry expectations. Had it opened in the 2,000 to 3,000 theaters it was originally scheduled to be in, the movie would have made far more. But security fears scuttled that release two weeks ago and led to a hybrid in-theater and at-home release plan.

That's how Sony (SNE) un-canceled the movie last week, with the help of independent theaters and online stores like Google (GOOG)'s YouTube. (Some of the big theater chains would have considered showing the movie, but they objected to online distribution while the movie was in theaters.)

To put the sales figures so far in context, the movie's budget was about $44 million, and that does not include any of the marketing costs.

In other words, Sony still has a long way to recoup its costs. But it determined that announcing the online sales figures would bolster its decision to release the movie online and would generate further interest in renting.

Sony did not break out how many of the two million were rentals and how many were sales. It's also not clear exactly what kind of deals Sony cut with its online partners, but most of the revenue will likely go to the studio.

A source with knowledge of the arrangement said most of the digital sales were made through Google's YouTube and Google Play.

The results may be a glimpse of Hollywood's future. Studios aren't going to abandon theaters en masse -- far from it. Studios and theater chains generally have a mutually beneficial relationship.

But analysts say that digital distribution will gradually, almost inevitably, become more important to the studios over time.

Related: Watching 'The Interview' online was absurdly amusing

In addition to YouTube and Google Play, the movie was initially available through Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30)'s Xbox video store and a dedicated Sony web site.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, it was also made available through Apple's iTunes store, a development first reported by Re/code. Rental through iTunes costs $5.99, the same price as through the other sites.

The addition of Apple (AAPL, Tech30) is noteworthy because an earlier distribution deal between Apple and Sony fell apart last week.

"The Interview" is still not available through Sony's PlayStation video store. The PlayStation Network has been plagued by an apparently unrelated outage in recent days.

Related: You won't get hacked by streaming 'The Interview' online

And to encourage more rentals of the movie, Rogen, his co-star James Franco and co-director Evan Goldberg held the live-tweet session Sunday afternoon. It was a twist on the notion of "social TV."

One Twitter executive dubbed the social networking site "the world's biggest movie theater." The site has been promoting the live-tweeting session extensively.

In a statement about the weekend box office numbers, Rogen said, "The fact that people actually left their houses when they had the option of staying home is amazing."

Related: What we know about the Sony Pictures hack

First Published: December 28, 2014: 2:37 PM ET

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New York City may ban Styrofoam cups

At issue in NYC is whether polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam, can be effectively recycled in a way that doesn't cost too much.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Currently, most Styrofoam products used in the city end up in landfills.

At issue now is whether polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam, can be effectively recycled in a way that doesn't cost too much.

New York passed a law last year restricting the sale and use of cups, food containers and packing materials made out of polystyrene. It will apply to restaurants, coffee shops, food carts and various other establishments.

But the ban was put on hold to first give manufacturers and the city time to see if they can come up with a way to recycle the material.

If the city deems polystyrene recyclable, it will begin processing it at a recycling facility in Brooklyn.

If it decides it cannot be recycled, the ban is expected to go into effect in July.

A decision is expected soon.

A ban would put New York City in the same league as San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose and Portland, all of which have restrictions on Styrofoam containers.

Related: California bans plastic grocery bags

Dart Container, one of the leading makers of foam cups, counters that polystyrene can be recycled in an economically feasible and environmentally effective way.

Dart has proposed a plan that would guarantee that all of New York's foam products will be recycled for the next five years -- at no cost to city, according to a statement from Michael Westerfield, the company's director of recycling.

Westerfield added that businesses stand to gain "millions in revenue" by recycling polystyrene, though he did not elaborate on how the proposal would be funded.

Related: How green is your state?

However, critics disagree that recycling is a good option.

A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that there is no safe and cost-effective way to recycle polystyrene and that a ban is the only option.

In 2013, San Jose, California, found that polystyrene cannot be recycled because of its low market value and the risk of food contamination.

In pointing out the possibility of the upcoming ban, a recent Goldman Sachs (GS) report said it would be good news for Berry Plastics Group (BERY), which makes cups out of a material similar to polystyrene that is recyclable.

Dunkin' Donuts, the coffee and donut chain with many locations in the city, will likely be a big buyer of Berry's Versalite hot and cold cups, the report says.

Goldman estimates that Versalite could generate an additional $10 million in revenue next year for Berry Plastics.

The investment bank said its sources suggest that New York is likely to ban the use of foam containers sometime over the next 12 months.

First Published: December 27, 2014: 10:00 AM ET

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