Foam Equipment's Blog

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.

 

What is made from recycled EPS?

Over 69 million pounds of EPS were recycled in 2008.  In the past decade EPS has achieved an average recycling rate of 12%, one of the highest of the plastics family. 

What is made from this recycled EPS?

• More EPS (expandable polystyrene) in several different forms: packaging peanuts, shape molded and block molded

 

 

 

 

 

• Picture frames, door and window frames, coat hangers, park benches, flower pots, toys, rulers, stapler bodies, seedling containers, CD and DVD cases 
• Mixed with concrete to produce new building products such as prefabricated concrete blocks.
• Co-mingled plastics products such as decking, lumber and interior trim.
• Mixed with soil and compost to promote aeration.

Let us help you in your efforts to recycle EPS and Styrofoam.

What Is Styrofoam?

Many of us use the term Styrofoam as a reference to most plastic foam packaging.  We include foam drinking cups, packaging peanuts and the white material that our appliances, toys and so many other items are packaged in.  In fact, most of this is not Styrofoam.  Styrofoam is a registered trademark of Dow Chemical for an extruded polystyrene foam material sometimes referred to as XPS.  This material is always made in a sheet form and is generally the color blue.  The primary use for Styrofoam is for building insulation although you may find it used in Geofoam applications or in block form in the hobby store.  As Dow states on their website, "You can't drink coffee from a STYROFOAM cup. (There's no such thing.)"

The typical foam coffee cup and the most common white colored packaging foam is expandable polystyrene foam or EPS for short.  This material is related to Styrofoam in chemical makeup but it is produced and formed in a different process.  It is generally recycled separately from DOW Styrofoam or other XPS material.   EPS can usually be identified by looking for the circular pattern on the surface created by the individual beads that are used to make the molded shape.

EPS is one of the best cushioning materials for protecting products during shipping.  While the claims that it is not biodegradable are true, the claims that it is not recyclable are totally false.  EPS foam packaging can be extruded back into solid PS pellets.  These can be used to produce many new items in PS plastic including coat hangers, CD cases and picture frames.