SOUTH PORTLAND — The pupils streaming into Dora L. Small Elementary School on Thursday couldn’t bring juice boxes to drink for snack or lunchtime, but they didn’t seem to mind Maine’s new ban on the containers.

Neither did most of their parents.

They admitted that packing something for their children to drink is a little harder without being able to use the handy, single-serving containers of juice and fruit drink that come with straws.

But several said they think keeping Maine’s environment clean is worth the sacrifice.

“If it’s not recyclable, we shouldn’t use it,” said Wendy Athearn as she walked to school with her son, a kindergarten pupil. “We’ve got to do something with all this trash building up.”

“I agree with the ban completely,” added Kathie Barton, another parent with her children in tow. “I also think milk cartons should be banned.”

Maine is the first state in the country to outlaw the popular 8 1/2-ounce juice boxes. Environmentalists contended the aseptic containers, made from bonded layers of plastic, paper and aluminum, can’t be recycled and went against the state’s goal of recycling half its solid waste by 1994.