Sustainability

Expand­ed Poly­styrene can be recy­cled in an effi­cient mechan­i­cal process to man­u­fac­ture a long list of sec­ondary prod­ucts from pack­ag­ing to con­struc­tion and oth­er products.

The process starts when EPS is col­lect­ed direct­ly from its many com­mer­cial users or households.

Sep­a­rat­ed or sort­ed EPS waste can be com­pact­ed effi­cient­ly, depend­ing on the desired feed­stock for  recy­cling. In many cas­es spe­cial­ist, fuel-effi­cient trucks known as high-vol­ume vehi­cles, are used for its trans­port. Any con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed mate­r­i­al like some includ­ing a now-banned flame retar­dant is sort­ed out before the process continues.

Then, EPS moulds are fed into a pre-shred­der where they are cut first into palm-sized pieces, then lat­er sub­ject­ed to fur­ther grind­ing and set­ting process­es. The result­ing mate­r­i­al, called “shred” can be used as an addi­tive for the plas­ter and mor­tar indus­try, in seat cush­ions, or as a pore-form­ing agent in brick man­u­fac­tur­ing, extend­ing the life cycle of the EPS for decades.

In many coun­tries, there is a large indus­try of small and medi­um-sized com­pa­nies that spe­cialise in recy­cling EPS.

See how it works in the videos below.

A chem­i­cal recy­cling process known as pyrol­y­sis can con­vert EPS in mixed plas­tic waste into pyrol­y­sis oil, which can be fed into the pro­duc­tion of basic chem­i­cals in place of fos­sil feed­stock. EPS that results from this chem­i­cal recy­cling process is indis­tin­guish­able from EPS made from vir­gin raw materials.

A vari­ety of recy­cling options, com­bined with the fact that EPS pack­ag­ing gen­er­al­ly con­sists of a sin­gle poly­mer, make EPS one of the most recy­clable plas­tic pack­ag­ing mate­ri­als available.