Foam Equipment's Blog

EPS and Styrofoam is recyclable

There is an excellent article posted today on the Plastics Today website pointing out two important facts, EPS packaging is recyclable and EPS packaging is a small component in our landfills and solid waste stream. 

One fact that is restricting EPS recycling efforts is that many municipalities and recycling centers do not accept Styrofoam / EPS packaging.  This may be because foam compacting equipment is needed to convert the light, bulky material into a densified form for economical shipping.  Densified EPS material is in demand by recycling companies so the revenue from material sales can usually offset the cost of the foam compactor.

Please contact your local recycling company and ask if EPS foam or Styrofoam is accepted. If not, encourage them to look into the benefits of recycling EPS. 

The 2010 AFPR recycling rate report referenced in the Plastics Today article can be found here. 

If you would like more information on equipment to densify EPS & Styrofoam for recycling, we would be happy to help.  Contact us at info@foamequipment.com or visit our web at www.foamequipment.com.

 

 

 

Recycling in the US vs. Germany

By guest blogger Tamara Teubert

I’m from Germany and I have been in the United States for six month and travelling through the whole country.

So I saw a lot of different places and I noticed that recycling in general is different than in Germany.

We recycle everything and we separate everything: We have biological waste, which we use for composting. Then we have paper, plastic, glass and household waste separate. We also separate the different kind of glass, like green glass, white glass and brown glass. I’ve never seen that in the USA. And in my experience the most people here throw everything in the same garbage.

Now I’m doing an internship at Foam Equipment + Consulting Co. and hear a lot about recycling and recognize that I don’t know much about that.

I started to think about that.

In school we’ve never talked about recycling our normal garbage. We were only taught about recycling nuclear waste. But now I think it would make more sense, if we learn something about recycling our garbage first and then studying about this big problem with the nuclear waste.

And I think it’s pretty interesting to know the differences of recycling in the different countries, too. Because I know now there are differences.

I’m wondering if recycling is a topic in school here, in the United States.

2010 EPS Recycling Report

The latest EPS recycling report was just released by the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers (AFPR).  The 2010 report shows a considerable increase in the EPS recycling percentage over the 2008 report, even during a poor economy when less EPS was sold.

EPS used for shape molding applications such as packaging has one of the highest recycling rates of all plastics, increasing from 19.5% in 2008 to 28% in 2010. 

This is encouraging news as many people are still unaware that EPS and Styrofoam are recyclable.  Based on the calls we receive, the concept of recycling EPS packaging is still new to many companies. 

One of the hurdles to EPS recycling is collection and transportation.  Many communities do not accept PS, EPS or Styrofoam at the neighborhood recycling center and very few communities accept Styrofoam in the curbside recycling program limiting the collection of post-consumer EPS. 

A second hurdle that goes hand in hand with collection is a lack of compacting and densification equipment at the community recycling centers.  Due to the bulkiness and light weight of EPS packaging, it should normally be compacted into a dense form before it is shipped to a plastics processor for recycling.  Compacting the foam, which is approximately 98% air, makes transportation economical.  Once a community decides it would like to add EPS and Styrofoam to their recycling program, a compactor specifically designed to densify EPS should be acquired. 

As more communities add EPS and Styrofoam to their recycling programs, the recycling percentages for this material will continue to climb.

Does recycling foam require all this !#@!$#*&%^ Social Media?

Or any other business for that matter.

What is up with all this social media?  One of the products we handle is recycling equipment (compactors) for EPS and other foams like expandable polyethylene, expandable polypropylene.  We have a pretty nice website too.  Actually it's a great website.  (boss built it).  So do we really need to also have a Twitter account, a Facebook account, a YouTube account, a LinkedIn account, a BizBlogger account......blah...blah...blah.

 I used to laugh at the kids, (kids being a relative term) watching them chat, tweet, blog, text, etc: h...o...w...r...u?...lol  By the time I type that on a fly size keyboard, I can pick up the phone and call the person.  (plus I'm not walking into people and walls while communicating)  Who has time to "follow" someone on Twitter?  I don't.  Besides I don't need to know when Paris Hilton is taking her dog out to potty, or Oprah is eating lunch.

When I finish watching the news on channel 4, and at the end they tell me to find them on Facebook, I ask WHY?  I just heard everything they had to say.  And if I missed something, when I go to their website to look it up, why would I then want to go to another website after I have seen it on their website.

Blogs.  Who has time to read them?  Yet we are told to blog blog blog!  Are you reading my blog?  If so, tell me so.  Comment.  Tell me what a stupid post or something.  Anything just to let me know someone took the time to read this.

All sounds a little crazy to me..........but

According to the experts we do need them.  If we want to "stay up" with the latest craze, we must be socially network savvy.  If we do not want to get left in the dust, we need to.  Everyone is doing it.  Get your info out there with everyone else.  Do we want to be the only one who is left out of the social media loop?  Well, I think not!

I am still not sure I understand it.  But we're doing it.  Hit us up on Twitter, a Facebook, LinkedIn, BizBloggeror check out our videos on YouTube.  We are in the 21st century man!

Have you put off buying your foam compactor?

Have you been watching the Euro?

In case you haven't noticed, Foam Equipment & Consulting Company is the North American Representative (Sales, Service, Parts and Consulting) for several German machine builders.  For these companies, we are the sole rep.  Between the different machinery lines for the foam molding industry and the foam recycling industry, (expandable polystyrene, expandable polyethylene, expandable polypropylene and extruded polystyrene), we have molding machinery, filling injectors, EPS, EPE and EPP grinding equipment, and foam compactors for the densification of foam, for recycling purposes.

What's that got to do with the Euro you ask?  Well, this equipment comes from Germany.  This is German engineering and technology at its best.  And you know what that means.  It's not the most inexpensive equipment out there.  But like anything else, you get what you pay for.

But if you have not been watching the Euro, it's a good time to take a look at it. If you are interested in buying our German equipment, it's time to make a move.  Like all other things, it probably won't stay down forever.  At the current price, it's close to 25% cheaper to buy something today, than it was just 6 months ago.  That can be significant.  I bet your tip fees or the cost to empty your dumpster of foam has not gone down 25%, (while you continue to let that plastic go to the landfill.)

When we are able to save some money on the Styrofoam recycling equipment or molding equipment, we pass it on to our customers.

Currently the Euro is below the average of the last 500 days.

 

How much scrap foam do I have?

One of the problems many people have when considering a compactor or densifier for scrap foam plastics is how much foam do they really have?  Since packaging foam is very lightweight and can be very bulky, what appears to be a large quantity may not be so much after all.  Typical polystyrene foam packaging and insulation is usually in the density range of 1 to 2 pound per cubic foot.  What this means is if you have a 12 inch x 12 inch x 12 inch cube of solid foam, it would weigh between 1 and 2 pounds.  Since most packaging foam is not used in a solid block form but is molded into relatively thin designs to protect the product, several cubic feet of polystyrene or polyethylene packaging foam may be required to equal a pound of foam.

Here are a few guidelines for estimating the weight of uncompressed EPS or EPE foam pieces.  (This excludes stacked sheet foam and block foam)

1. A 53' trailer load will weigh 1500 - 2000 pounds
2. A 20 yard roll-off dumpster containing only EPS foam will hold 200 - 300 pounds of EPS
3. A 12 foot square mound of foam packaging piled 8 feet high will weight about 100 - 150 pounds of EPS

Are you still unsure of your weekly or monthly EPS waste volume? We are happy to give you a hand.  Give us a call at 314-427-4395 or email at info@foamequipment.com.

FYI:  Styrofoam is a registered trademark for the Dow Chemical brand of extruded polystyrene foam (XPS). It is usually blue in color and made in the form of a sheet.   Expandable polystyrene (EPS) is a bead type foam which can be molded into shapes, blocks, and sheets.  It is typically white in color but can be died to any color.  EPS is frequently but erroneously referred to a Styrofoam.

Styrofoam Recycling

There is a misconception that Styrofoam ^TM (Expandable PolyStyrene or EPS) is not recyclable and that is wrong.  EPS recycling is growing stronger every day.  Styrofoam ^TM or EPS is the number "6" recycling plastic and it must be reduced or compacted to make it feasible to ship to a plastics recycler.  It has become a coveted raw material for recyclers and they are discovering a wide range of markets for it.  

A full trailer load of loosely stacked EPS foam will only weigh approximately 2000 pounds.  After the foam is run through a compactor or densifier 40,000 pounds or more can go on that same trailer and now it is cost effective for shipping.  A screw compactor can take a 1 pound per cubic foot piece of Styrofoam and reduce the volume to as much as 20 pounds per cubic foot.  This compactor or densifier can also process other types of foam.

There needs to be bigger push for all types of recycling, Styrofoam included. It's plain and simple, recycling still costs more than landfilling in many locations - it's all about the cost. 

So how do we curb the landfilling?  Just like we do for alcohol, cigarettes and gambling, we create a sin tax that would increase the cost of landfilling.  This tax money is then used for recycling efforts: setting up recycling locations, paying workers and purchasing equipment, like the EPS compactor. 

Where are you sending your recycled plastic?

 Where are you sending your recycled plastic products today?  Doesn't it make more sense to keep the recycle plastics here in the United States?

 Think about it.  In order to make plastic products, you need petroleum.  The more plastic products we make from virgin (new or non-recycled) materials, the more petroleum we need.  Have you looked at the gas pump recently?  Or do you know how many plastic products are being pumped into the ocean each day in the Gulf of Mexico, in the form of a crude oil spill?  It seems to me that if all the recycled plastics we are exporting to other countries, (and then buying back in the form of cheaply made products) were to be recycled right here in our own country, the demand for crude oil would be less.

 In 2006, 331 million barrels of petroleum, (314.5 million barrels of crude to produce) were used to make plastics and plastic products in the United States plastics and resins industry.  That's 4.6% of the United States total petroleum consumption, or at $90 a barrel, about 30 billion dollars, not spent across the water.  But the same things would be produced here, keeping our jobs at home, and employing some of our own, and boosting the "Made in America" products, which in this day and age, are hard to come by.

 Take a look around.  There are companies who are end users of recycled plastics right here in our own country.  And they are not so hard to find.  Additionally, I have known some of the end user buyers to be paying as much as the exporters.  And now, not only are you becoming (or maintaining) "green", but your helping your fellow American get or keep a job, doing your part to help our economy.

Recycled polystyrene, polyethylene, & polypropylene foam prices climb

Prices for virgin polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene resins in North American continue to increase.  Prices have increased as much as 20% or more since the beginning of 2010.  There has also been an increase in products made with recycled PE and PP content. These factors are helping to push up the prices for recycled PP and PE foam logs to very attractive levels.  At the recent Plastic Recycling Conference in Austin, TX, we received as many requests from buyers looking for material sources as we did for recycling machinery.  It is a good time to take a new look at your EPS, PE and PP foam wastes.  The return on investment for a foam compactor may be significantly better than a year ago.  We would be happy to assist you in your analysis and put you in touch with material buyers for updated material bids.

Plastic Recycling Resin Identification Codes

In 1988 The Society of Plastics Industry (SPI) developed the Resin Identification Code (RIC) system.   The codes were developed to provide a consistent national system to help workers on sorting lines identify post-consumer bottles using the 6 basic packaging resin classes.  The RIC system was not intended to imply recyclability.  Soon after their introduction, 39 states mandated that bottles and containers be marked with the recycling plastic Codes to assist source segregation at households.  This practice introduced the general public to the existence of the Code.  States also insisted on having an "OTHER" category.  The publics misinterpretation of the Codes, particularly OTHER, has become a serious problem.  The 6 basic resin classes (recycling numbers) no longer suffice to meet the needs of recyclers, particularly with regard to new resins and multi-material construction.   In 2008, SPI asked ASTM to take ownership of the codes.  ASTM agreed and initiated work to convert from the RIC to the ASTM standard format and address various issues using the ASTM consensus's based process.  ASTM is composed of 32,000 volunteer members from over 125 countries: consumers, producers design professionals, researchers, and academia.  Anyone with interest can participate on the ASTM committees.

ASTM's main focus

• What to do about "7"
• What to do about the Chasing Arrows symbol?
• What defines "1", "2", "3", etc?
• How do we handle multi-material and multi-layer structures?
• Are new codes needed

Some information supplied from astm.org