Styrofoam is a trademarked name for a specific variation of expanded polystyrene packaging (EPS). If you get take-out, pick up eggs from some grocery stores or receive packages in the mail, you most likely end up with what you think is “Styrofoam ™.” So, now that you have this EPS in your home, what do you do with it? Maybe you’ve heard EPS is not recyclable but have also heard it lasts forever in a landfill. Turn over the packaging and there it is, a recycling symbol with a number six inside because EPS is made from petroleum and, like most plastics, it does have properties that make it technically recyclable. EPS is also comprised of more than 90% air, which makes it not only lightweight but bulky. However, some recycling programs can be adjusted to incorporate Styrofoam waste.
Usually in recycling plastics, the whole item can be melted down before molding it again, but with Styrofoam this doesn’t happen because the polymer is so hard. EPS items are difficult to break down without destroying them permanently. EPS also doesn’t biodegrade; it simply dissipates, becoming toxic as it breaks down. Unfortunately, the vast amount of plastic waste ends up in landfills or in our oceans, rivers and lakes and with time breaks down into methane and other noxious gasses.
Residential polystyrene foam packaging is included in a provincial recycling program, managed by Recycle BC. It is currently accepted at the Sechelt Recycling Facility. This includes foam polystyrene packaging (styrofoam) to protect appliances, as well as foam take-out and meat containers.
99% of plastic that we take to a recycling facility is recycled or repurposed in BC but the remaining 1% is Styrofoam which is compacted (to reduce volume) and sent overseas to Malaysia and other countries for repurposing.
Unfortunately, EPS is hard to recycle in a cost-effective manner. The collection of styrofoam requires a system that can compress it into an ultra-dense form to warrant the expenses related to transporting such a lightweight product. Then it has to be taken to a special facility that can shred styrofoam and repurpose it for alternative use. After processing it is no longer expandable (because it has been compacted) and it often gets turned into hard plastic for use in picture frames, park benches and crown mouldings, for example.
Essentially, styrofoam never gets truly “recycled” ; it just gets repurposed. Commercial recycling companies are working on ways to incorporate “chemical recycling” but this process is still in experimental stages. Scientists in the US have found that a polystyrene cup will dissolve pretty much instantly in biodiesel. The resulting plastic-enhanced fuel produces increased power output from a diesel engine by up to 5%. But nature tends to balance things out, of course – the experimentally-fueled engines kick out more soot, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide in their exhausts. And while that all sounds pretty bad, it looks like redesigning the engine’s fuel injection system to create a better fuel-burn from the new mix could reduce the emission levels back down to more acceptable levels.
Want to know more about this and other BC related recycling issues? Phone the BC recycling hotline at 1-800-667-4321 or 604-RECYCLE (732-9253) in Metro Vancouver
Want to try to take Styrofoam out of the packaging industry entirely? That will take much longer and will need to involve both Provincial and Federal officials.
Peter Hews, January 2022
PHOTOS: The first photo was taken in January 2021 in Sargeant Bay after a King Tide had lifted and moved many of the logs at the head of the beach – Shredded white Styrofoam can be seen as layers beneath where drift logs had been resting. The Styrofoam was then washed up by the next high tide, coating the remaining beach logs. Styrofoam, once in the natural environment, is very hard to remove.