Foam Equipment's Blog

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.