Why EPS?

EPS protects the things that matter most

Light­weight, shock-resis­tant, and an excep­tion­al insu­la­tor, EPS is wide­ly used in bicy­cle, ski and snow­board hel­mets, children’s car seats and life vests – appli­ca­tions in which both reg­u­la­tors and users demand excep­tion­al safety.

Chances are we all grew up rid­ing in EPS car seats, where moth­ers and fathers appre­ci­ate the light weight and shock absorp­tion char­ac­ter­is­tics that make EPS the mate­r­i­al of choice for many a piece of per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment. Because it is com­posed of 98% air, it is also what makes life vests and surf­boards float.

An impor­tant ben­e­fit of using EPS in gear is the reli­a­bil­i­ty of mould­ed EPS pieces in absorb­ing impacts under a broad range of cir­cum­stances. EPS is also not impaired by com­mon chem­i­cals that can affect oth­er mate­ri­als and it main­tains its pro­tec­tive qual­i­ties over time.

EPS protects seedlings

EPS is light­weight, water­proof and a good ther­mal insulator—all qual­i­ties that are good for pro­tect­ing young plants and bees besides oth­er valu­able goods and people .

In fact, plant nurs­eries often use EPS trays to grow young seedlings and ship them world­wide. The trays pro­tect the seedlings from phys­i­cal and ther­mal shocks and don’t leak. And the bright white trays reflect light, which helps the plants grow.

In many cas­es, the hor­ti­cul­tur­al trays are re-used many times before being recy­cled. You can learn more about the recy­cling of EPS pack­ag­ing here.

EPS protects bees

Did you know that many of the world’s pro­fes­sion­al bee­keep­ers use EPS beehives?

The bee­hives are light­weight, mak­ing them easy for bee­keep­ers of all ages to move from place to place to help the bees pol­li­nate crops and find new sources of food. In many coun­tries EPS bee­hives have com­plete­ly replaced heavy wood­en boxes.

The excep­tion­al insu­la­tion prop­er­ties of EPS also do a bet­ter job of keep­ing bees warm in the win­ter and cool in the sum­mer, allow­ing them to avoid stress. That’s a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to the pro­tec­tion of bees and bio­di­ver­si­ty. Learn more here.

EPS saves lives at sea

Because it is almost as light as air and floats, EPS has long been used in life vests and res­cue rings for swim­ming pools and boats. But it is also used to pack­age and pro­tect parts in remote-con­trolled buoys because of its excel­lent shock-absorp­tion qualities.

Por­tuguese com­pa­ny Noras Per­for­mance pro­duces a remote-con­trolled life­sav­ing buoy called U‑Safe. Thanks to it being oper­at­ed by remote con­trol, a per­son onshore or a boat can steer the U‑Shaped buoy to some­one in the water to trans­port her or him to safety.

BEWI Plas­ti­mar in Por­tu­gal sup­plies Noras Per­for­mance with an EPS part that pro­tects the on-board elec­tron­ics of the buoy from shocks and rough weath­er. The elec­tron­ic con­trols are essen­tial to steer­ing the elec­tric tur­bines remote­ly and kilo­me­tres away.

NORAS Per­for­mance has been delight­ed with the results as EPS prop­er­ties ful­filled the require­ments need­ed, espe­cial­ly on the pro­tec­tion and shock absorp­tion of the buoy.

EPS helps automobiles lose weight

Weight is the ene­my of most automak­ers. It takes ener­gy to move, and stop, mass,. As a result, many automak­ers are look­ing to EPS com­po­nents to help reduce the weight of their prod­ucts and improve over­all fleet fuel economy.

EPS is wide­ly used in front and rear bumpers to absorb shocks, while weigh­ing as lit­tle as pos­si­ble. EPS is also used in side-impact pro­tec­tion sys­tems.

It is also used in bespoke parts such as the mould­ing to keep tyre repair kits in place with­out rat­tling and bang­ing. For some more exam­ples, click here.

EPS saves lives. Literally.

When the com­pa­nies mak­ing the vac­cines to pro­tect us from COVID-19 need­ed pack­ag­ing that could keep their prod­ucts at ‑70°C for up to 3 days, what did they turn to? You guessed it: EPS. 

Sev­er­al COVID-19 vac­cines are being deliv­ered exclu­sive­ly in EPS pack­ag­ing because of its unique com­bi­na­tion of out­stand­ing ther­mal insu­la­tion, excel­lent shock pro­tec­tion and light weight – impor­tant when vac­cines are being deliv­ered by air freight around the world.

The vac­cine vials are packed in EPS con­tain­ers, which are then filled with dry ice. The EPS con­tain­ers are some­times encased in card­board for addi­tion­al pro­tec­tion on long journeys.

EPS is also the pack­ag­ing of choice for many oth­er med­ical uses such as cool box­es for human organ transplants.

Broken white goods? Not with EPS

Although extreme­ly light­weight, EPS pack­ag­ing is an impres­sive­ly pro­tec­tive and ver­sa­tile mate­r­i­al for the trans­porta­tion and stor­age of large “white goods”, such as wash­ing machines, refrig­er­a­tors and ovens. 

Its out­stand­ing pro­tec­tive prop­er­ties have made EPS a favourite pack­ag­ing mate­r­i­al for man­u­fac­tur­ers world­wide for the past 40 years.

The trans­porta­tion of large white goods requires a mate­r­i­al that has excep­tion­al cush­ion­ing prop­er­ties and high ten­sile strength so that goods arrive to cus­tomers with­out dam­age. Large white goods also require a mate­r­i­al that can be adapt­ed to the spec­i­fi­ca­tions of the indi­vid­ual prod­uct and process to trans­port high-val­ue prod­ucts to con­sumers safe­ly, sav­ing resources along its entire life cycle, includ­ing dur­ing pro­duc­tion and trans­port, and avoid­ing prod­uct waste.

These days it is not enough to be low-cost, how­ev­er. Even the most tried and test­ed mate­ri­als need to stand up to envi­ron­men­tal scrutiny.

The good news: Because EPS con­tains 98% air and is extreme­ly light­weight, its use saves ener­gy and reduces CO2 emis­sions across its entire life cycle. More­over, most white goods retail­ers take back their pack­ag­ing after they deliv­er their wares, mak­ing it eas­i­er to col­lect and recy­cle EPS again and again.

EPS keeps fish fresh

EPS is the lead­ing mar­ket solu­tion in the pro­tec­tion of fish and fish prod­ucts from sea to sales counter across the globe.

This is due to its unpar­al­leled ther­mal per­for­mance, impact cush­ion­ing and stack­ing strength as well as its estab­lished eco-credentials.

Reg­u­la­tions require pro­fes­sion­al fish­er­men and dis­trib­u­tors to com­ply with strict tem­per­a­ture stan­dards in order to ensure the fresh­ness of the catch. Fish mar­ket pro­fes­sion­als need a mate­r­i­al that is eco­nom­i­cal and hygien­ic but at the same time tough, water­proof and light­weight. EPS ticks all the boxes.

EPS’s excep­tion­al impact resis­tance derives from the unique cel­lu­lar matrix of the EPS ‘foam’ – effec­tive­ly 98% air bond­ed with 2% poly­styrene. That cel­lu­lar struc­ture is also vir­tu­al­ly imper­me­able to water. EPS box­es are also high­ly resis­tant to heat trans­fer as well as being extreme­ly lightweight.

As a result, fish box­es made of EPS are the ide­al mate­r­i­al to ensure that the day’s catch arrives at your plate as fresh as it left the sea. They keep fish cold from catch until deliv­ery, ensur­ing opti­mum safe­ty, fresh­ness, and qual­i­ty and allow­ing fish caught in the EU to be export­ed world­wide. No oth­er fish box mate­r­i­al comes close to EPS.

Many stud­ies have shown that EPS con­tain­ers pro­vide the best insu­la­tion of all com­mon pack­ag­ing mate­ri­als, keep­ing tem­per­a­tures below 5.0°C for more than 72 hours. More­over, a 2011 life cycle analy­sis by Price­wa­ter­house­C­oop­ers analysed the envi­ron­men­tal impacts of sev­er­al fish box mate­ri­als, includ­ing EPS and card­board. The study showed that EPS has a small­er car­bon foot­print than alter­na­tive pack­ag­ing, requir­ing min­i­mal ener­gy and water inputs in pro­duc­tion with almost no pro­duc­tion waste.

EPS keeps our food safe

Food waste is a major envi­ron­men­tal prob­lem. Luck­i­ly, EPS pro­vides a solution. 

Around 88 mil­lion tonnes of food goes to waste every year in Europe, accord­ing to the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion. That has a huge envi­ron­men­tal impact, account­ing for 6% of total EU green­house gas emis­sions for food that was pro­duced but nev­er con­sumed, accord­ing to the Commission.

Reduc­ing food waste is a triple-win, sav­ing good food for human con­sump­tion, help­ing con­sumers save mon­ey and low­er­ing the envi­ron­men­tal impact of food pro­duc­tion, trans­porta­tion and disposal.

With its superb insu­la­tion and shock-absorb­ing qual­i­ties, EPS pack­ag­ing is wide­ly used to keep fish, meat, fruit and veg­eta­bles fresh longer and pro­tect them from dam­age dur­ing trans­porta­tion. Unlike some cel­lu­lose-based mate­ri­als, EPS sup­ports hygiene because it resists humid­i­ty, pre­vent­ing the spread of bac­te­ria, mould and fun­gi, thus keep­ing food safe.

EPS keeps electrical and electronic equipment safe

Light­weight and shock-resis­tant, EPS pack­ag­ing is wide­ly used to pro­vide pro­tec­tion and safe­ty to a vari­ety of high val­ue elec­tri­cal and elec­tron­ic goods from stere­os to TV displays. 

It pro­tects them all due to its unique abil­i­ty to shield them against both shocks and tem­per­a­ture changes.

EPS has a high ener­gy absorp­tion index. That means it is an ide­al mate­r­i­al for pro­tect­ing sen­si­tive prod­ucts dur­ing trans­porta­tion and storage.

Its excep­tion­al impact resis­tance derives from the unique cel­lu­lar matrix of the EPS ‘foam’ – effec­tive­ly 98% air bond­ed with 2% poly­styrene. No oth­er mate­r­i­al comes close to EPS when it comes to impact resistance.

This is even more fun­da­men­tal today than ever before, as design and dis­tri­b­u­tion require­ments for trans­port pack­ag­ing become more demand­ing in the glob­al, sus­tain­able and cir­cu­lar economy.