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.

 

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.