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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
It’s very frustrating whenever you have large quantities of something you can’t reuse or recycle. You feel bad throwing it out, but what else can you do? So I was delighted to learn recently that Styrofoam — expanded polystyrene or EPS — can be recycled. (Specifically, I’m talking about the rigid packing material, not the loose packing peanuts. Most packing and shipping stores accept packing peanuts for reuse.) It turns out that EPS can serve as feedstock for the manufacture of new EPS or it can be remanufactured to make coat hangers, CD jewel cases, and agricultural trays.
Unfortunately for home recyclers, most EPS recycling programs are geared to large commercial sources. You can, however, mail used EPS to the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers or drop it off at their headquarters in Crofton, Md. (Since EPS is mainly air, it is relatively cheap to mail.) The used packaging should be clean, with no tape or cardboard included. If you’re going to drop your EPS off, it should be in clear plastic bags. (You can pick up these bags at the Crofton location.) We had a little trouble finding the place, so I would recommend calling ahead for directions:
The Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers
1298 Cronson Boulevard, Suite 201
Crofton, Maryland 21114
410.451.8340
www.epspackaging.org
I plan to suggest that the county begin accepting EPS at the waste transfer station. In the meantime, I will see if we can arrange a special community pickup at one of our events. If you’d like to help in this campaign, call Carole Barth [contact details redacted]. ■
© 2007 NFCCA [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn200704a.html]