How To Recycle Styrofoam At Home With No Problems - EcoFreek

It’s no secret that plastic is harming our planet, which is why it’s vital to find solutions to the mess we’re making.

Let’s start with Styrofoam; the plastic no one knows what to do with.

Even I had no idea what to do with it; I knew sending it to landfill sites meant it would get burnt or get buried under piles of trash.

I set out to find out how to recycle styrofoam.

If you’re feeling guilty for chucking expanded polystyrene in the bin, you should keep reading this one for you!

Contents

• 1 Is It Possible To Recycle Styrofoam?
• 2 Why Is Styrofoam Not Recyclable?
• 3 What Number Styrofoam Is Recyclable?
• 4 How Do You Dispose Of Styrofoam?
• 5 Is Styrofoam Worse Than Plastic?
• 6 Are There Any Styrofoam Alternatives?
• 7 What Can I Use Old Styrofoam For?
• 8 Summary

Is It Possible To Recycle Styrofoam?

Yes, it is possible to recycle polystyrene foam, but it’s not very easy and depends on a few factors such as whether it was disposed of properly or ended up in commercial trash cans. For instance, what type of polystyrene is it?

There’s different forms of Styrofoam, and unfortunately, some of them can’t be recycled.

You have to make sure the Styrofoam is made using EPS. Any other styles of polystyrene won’t be accepted at the recycling facility.

Why Is Styrofoam Not Recyclable?

There’s a lot of ways recycling your old foam packaging is not possible.

It could be down to it being the wrong grade of polystyrene.

It’s important to remember that not all Styrofoam can be recycled.

For example, the Styrofoam containers you get from takeaways usually can’t be recycled. The same can be said with egg cartons.

They’re made with a slightly different variety of expanded polystyrene.

You’ll also struggle when it comes to recycling colored Styrofoam. The dye contaminates the recycling process, which means recycling companies won’t take it.

And even if everything is OK with the Styrofoam, your community recycling center may not except EPF (expanded polystyrene foam). EPF is the end product. Once it’s been expanded, it can’t return to its natural form.

And the last reason is the most concerning. It’s so hard and costly to recycle Styrofoam that many recycling companies are running at a loss. This means many processing plants don’t want to take it.

So, yes, you can recycle Styrofoam, but for how long is anyone’s guess. Hopefully, inventors will find a way to recycle Styrofoam more effectively.

What Number Styrofoam Is Recyclable?

I mentioned earlier that different styles of plastic have recycling codes.

EPS runs under #6 plastic, which means it can be recycled, but it needs to go to a special recycling facility.

EPF, on the other hand, can’t be recycled, it’s an end product which can not return to its natural state.

It looks and feels very similar to EPS, but has a plastic glisten to it. You should try to avoid EPF at all costs.

How Do You Dispose Of Styrofoam?

Disposing Styrofoam doesn’t have to be as hard, you just need to know where to look.

The first thing you should do is check with your curbside recycling if you’re fortunate your recycling company might offer it. But this is very rare; you need to lucky.

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. My personal choice of website is Earth 911; it has an outstanding database on recycling locations.

Once you’ve found the spot closest to you, it’s time to prepare the Styrofoam for recycling. You need to make sure the polystyrene is clean if you want them to accept it.

Make sure any stickers, sellotape, and dirt get removed beforehand; if they think it’s soiled, it gets sent to a landfill.

Now, what happens if you can’t recycle Styrofoam in your local area, what do you do?

You could mail it; a prepaid UPS will more than happy to take it there for you. If you need to send larger chunks, don’t be afraid to cut them down to fit it in a smaller container.

If you have a lot of packing peanuts, you need to get rid of; you can send them to local packing companies. Reusing them is less harmful to the environment.

Is Styrofoam Worse Than Plastic?

They have a lot of similarities, neither of them biodegrade, and you might be wondering, is styrofoam biodegradable?

Well, no to decompose, both of them take around 500 years before they start breaking down. And this doesn’t really hold up to biodegradabilities standards.

And the similarities don’t stop there. Both forms are incredibly harmful to the environment.

Styrofoam and plastic contain toxic chemicals that can leach into your food and water. All this plastic ends up damaging our local communities.

If either of them ends up at an incinerator unit, then it causes further damage; when burnt harmful toxins are released:

• Sulfur dioxide
• Hydrochloric acid
• Dioxins
• Carbon monoxide
• Sterne