There are plenty of drop off locations, but if they can find a reason not to recycle it, they probably will. My second reason is because of how difficult it is to recycle. Landfills are struggling to keep up with the amount of trash we generate, without adding blocks of foam packing into it.Īnd because it doesn’t degrade, these blocks are likely to be around forever. The first one is because of the amount of space it takes up. Which is why it’s so important to dispose of it correctly.īut, if I had to choose one, it would be Styrofoam, for a couple of reasons. If either of them ends up at an incinerator unit, then it causes further damage when burnt harmful toxins are released:Īs you can see, they can kick out some extremely toxic chemicals they’re known to be carcinogens, and all of them affect the ozone. All this plastic ends up damaging our local communities. Styrofoam and plastic contain toxic chemicals that can leach into your food and water. Both forms are incredibly harmful to the environment. And this doesn’t really hold up to biodegradabilities standards.Īnd the similarities don’t stop there. Well, no to decompose, both of them take around 500 years before they start breaking down. They have a lot of similarities, neither of them biodegrade, and you might be wondering, is styrofoam biodegradable? Reusing them is less harmful to the environment. If you have a lot of packing peanuts, you need to get rid of you can send them to local packing companies. If you need to send larger chunks, don’t be afraid to cut them down to fit it in a smaller container. You could mail it a prepaid UPS will more than happy to take it there for you. Now, what happens if you can’t recycle Styrofoam in your local area, what do you do? Make sure any stickers, sellotape, and dirt get removed beforehand if they think it’s soiled, it gets sent to a landfill. You need to make sure the polystyrene is clean if you want them to accept it. Once you’ve found the spot closest to you, it’s time to prepare the Styrofoam for recycling. My personal choice of website is Earth 911 it has an outstanding database on recycling locations. If you’re one of the many unlucky people that can’t recycle their foam packaging at home, you’ll need to perform a quick google search. The first thing you should do is check with your curbside recycling if you’re fortunate your recycling company might offer it. How Do You Dispose Of Styrofoam?ĭisposing Styrofoam doesn’t have to be as hard, you just need to know where to look.
You should try to avoid EPF at all costs. It looks and feels very similar to EPS, but has a plastic glisten to it. I mentioned earlier that different styles of plastic have recycling codes.ĮPS runs under #6 plastic, which means it can be recycled, but it needs to go to a special recycling facility.ĮPF, on the other hand, can’t be recycled, it’s an end product which can not return to its natural state. Hopefully, inventors will find a way to recycle Styrofoam more effectively. So, yes, you can recycle Styrofoam, but for how long is anyone’s guess. This means many processing plants don’t want to take it. It’s so hard and costly to recycle Styrofoam that many recycling companies are running at a loss. Once it’s been expanded, it can’t return to its natural form.Īnd the last reason is the most concerning. The dye contaminates the recycling process, which means recycling companies won’t take it.Īnd even if everything is OK with the Styrofoam, your community recycling center may not except EPF (expanded polystyrene foam). You’ll also struggle when it comes to recycling colored Styrofoam. They’re made with a slightly different variety of expanded polystyrene. It’s important to remember that not all Styrofoam can be recycled.įor example, the Styrofoam containers you get from takeaways usually can’t be recycled. It could be down to it being the wrong grade of polystyrene. There’s a lot of ways recycling your old foam packaging is not possible. Any other styles of polystyrene won’t be accepted at the recycling facility. You have to make sure the Styrofoam is made using EPS. There’s different forms of Styrofoam, and unfortunately, some of them can’t be recycled. For instance, what type of polystyrene is it? Yes, it is possible to recycle polystyrene foam, but it’s not very easy and depends on a few factors.
6 Are There Any Styrofoam Alternatives?.
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