Expanding Numbers

According to the Crofton, Md.-based Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers (AFPR), expanded polystyrene (EPS) makes up a small fraction of the solid waste stream at seven-tenths of 1 percent. However, thanks to its bulky nature and ubiquitous use in packaging for a range of products from consumer electronics to dinnerware, it can seem more pervasive.

EPS is the generic name for the rigid material made by expanding polystyrene beads with steam and pressure to bond form blocks or other molded shapes. EPS is also used in the construction industry for insulation and void fill. Those outside of the industry often mistakenly refer to the material as “Styrofoam,” a registered trademark belonging to Dow Chemical Co. for a closed-cell extruded polystyrene product. Styrofoam is commonly used in construction applications as insulation in walls, floors and roofing. Dow also markets the material for use in craft and floral applications.

Betsy Steiner, executive director of the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, says 71.3 million pounds of EPS were collected for recycling in 2010. This figure represents post-consumer, post-commercial and post-industrial material. The recycling rate is up slightly from 2008, when 69.4 million pounds of EPS were recovered for recycling.

Steiner credits this increase to a growing number of programs that are helping to divert the material to recyclers, such as a Sanofi Pasteur and Helios Biosciences initiative to implement pre-paid return shipping recycling programs for EPS biomedical coolers. Walmart also has implemented a closed-loop EPS recycling program. From its distribution centers, the company collects EPS, which is being used to create picture frames for sale exclusively in U.S. Walmart stores, she says.
 

Electronics recycler Intercon Solutions, Chicago Heights, Ill., has developed its own technology to recycle foam packaging (at left). Canada’s London Drugs touts the success of its foam recycling program (above).

THE BOX AND BEYOND
“The biomedical coolers are a unique application,” Steiner says, “because there is no outer packaging.” The research hospitals and veterinary clinics who receive shipments of medication in these coolers simply use the pre-paid shipping label to return the coolers. She says it’s not uncommon for four to five trailer loads of the returned coolers to arrive daily six days per week at participating recycling locations.

In Walmart’s program, the company works with special-needs employers that are located near their distribution centers, Steiner says. These special-needs workplaces house densifying equipment. EPS material collected at the retailer’s distribution centers is processed at these partner locations before being shipped to a company that re-extrudes the EPS to form picture frames, which are then sold back to Walmart.

For residential consumers, the AFPR offers a mail-back program designed to allow anyone with smaller quantities of EPS packaging access to recycling. (A list of locations that accept material through this program is available at www.epspackaging.org/images/stories/National_Mail_Back_Locations0411.pdf.) According to the AFPR’s website, shipping fees range from $1.50 to $9, depending on total packaging weight and volume. “Since expanded polystyrene is extremely lightweight (98 percent air) it can be economically shipped to a regional location,” the group says.

The AFPR also offers a list of drop-off locations that accept EPS for recycling at www.epspackaging.org/images/stories/Drop_Off__Locations411.pdf.

EPS packaging collected through these programs is recycled into new packaging.

These programs have proven more successful than curbside collection programs, Steiner says. “In the ’90s a lot of communities tried to capture this material in the blue box, but they were unsuccessful,” she says, noting that the EPS material tended to be highly contaminated. In addition, insufficient volume also was a problem, making it economically unviable, Steiner says.

A number of communities, including Los Angeles, recently began collecting EPS at the curbside. Steiner says she was opposed to curbside collection of the material, recalling the problems of the ’90s. “I’m glad to say I was proven wrong,” she says. “In areas where there is a need and enough support from the community and industry, it can work.”

Steiner cautions that because of contamination and cleanliness issues material collected through curbside programs may not be suitable for all end markets, which can include aggregate applications, interior trim, packaging and rigid durable packaging, such as CD cases.

SOUND ECONOMICS
“EPS recycling keeps increasing because it is not built on false economics,” Steiner says. “It is evolving at a sustainable rate.”

She notes that demand for EPS feedstock exists, but adds that many consumers, such as Apple and Microsoft, do not specify recycled content in their packaging. Currently, according to the AFPR, nearly 50 percent of the EPS collected is used to manufacture new EPS transport packaging and loose-fill packaging. The association says new EPS packaging can incorporate from 5 to 15 percent recycled content using a regrind process.

Steinert says Rapac Inc., Oakland, Tenn., has developed EPS with 50 percent recycled content, however the molding community is still learning how to use the material.

“There is a diverse model in terms of EPS recycling technologies available,” she adds, citing regind, densification and re-extrusion and aggregate applications. “All could consume more material.”

A recycling initiative based out of Canada can help companies collect EPS packaging for recycling by offering the necessary equipment as well as a ready consumer.
 

AN END-TO-END SOLUTION
Two Canadian companies have partnered on a recycling initiative designed to recycle Styrofoam trimmings and rejects. Foam packaging material also can be recycled using the equipment. EPS Molders Inc., Edmonton, Alberta, and Waste Reduction & Recycling Consultants Inc., Alberta Beach, Alberta, are providing what they describe as a “closed-loop Styrofoam recycling solution” that includes electro-thermal densifier equipment, manufactured by Pana Chemical Co., and in-house commodity marketing support services. EPS Molders has been recycling the material for the last five years, according to Jim Donaldson of Waste Reduction & Recycling Consultants.

EPS Molders specializes in designing and manufacturing Styrofoam foundations for building systems that are produced by its sister company, Polycore Canda, that integrate Styrofoam with standard steel building studs.

The process uses an electro-thermal densifier to compact expanded polystyrene (EPS) and expanded polypropylene (EPP) foam by a 50:1 ratio, Donaldson says, which is ready for cost-effective shipment for remanufacturing. The material must be sorted by commodity type prior to densifying.

The program also has established a commodity value for the material. According to Donaldson, the material has averaged a price of $330 per metric ton in the last five years and is currently valued at $430 per metric ton.

“The electro-thermal melt is shipped to our sister company in Japan, where they regrind and extrude the electro-thermal melt into new rigid plastic parts and components for companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Toshiba, Canon, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Nikon, Nintendo, Panasonic, Sharp and Sony, to name a few,” he says.

EPS Molders and Waste Reduction & Recycling Consultants offer the densifier for sale or lease throughout North America. Under the companies’ distribution agreement, all of the densified material becomes the property of EPS Molders and its third-party manufacturing partners, Donaldson says. EPS Molders also manages related shipping, payments and equipment warranty service issues, he adds.

The densifier, which can be used as either a mobile or stationary unit, costs roughly $70,000. Companies incorporating this technology will receive a payment for the material they ship for recycling as well as a tipping/processing fee that ranges from $5 per bag (about 2.5 cubic yards) for pickup truck loads to $275 per tractor-trailer load (about 140 cubic yards), Donaldson says.

Mark Cunningham, president of EPS Molders and Polycore Recycling, told the Edmonton Journal in December 2010 that the return on investment for the densifier is about one year, thanks to the guaranteed buyer.

Donaldson sees virtually no limit to where the program can be deployed. “As we create the emerging North American closed-loop Styrofoam recycling industry, the Styrofoam recycling facilitators will range from manufacturers to distribution centers to material recovery facilities to landfill sites to transfer stations to postal facilities to airport railway cargo terminals to freight-forwarding companies,” he says.

Cunningham and Donaldson told the Edmonton Journal that low-volume users could take advantage of their program by sharing container space, enabling regular material shipments.
 

DOOR TO OPPORTUNITY
Intercon Solutions, Chicago Heights, Ill., would not describe itself as handling low-volumes of EPS packaging. The electronics recycler was being approached by its clients, who needed solutions for the packaging material surrounding their electronics, says Brian Brundage, Intercon Solutions CEO. “Our business is built on our clients’ needs.”

Brundage says the densifiers he had looked at could handle one specific type of foam. “We were getting 10 different types of foam,” he adds, noting that the majority of the material was EPS.

That’s when the company began experimenting with its own technology, which, Brundage says, “reverse engineers” the material and is suitable for extruded and expanded PS and light-gauge plastics, including plastic bags. “We set a bale of material into the machine, which separates the materials, applies light and heat and sucks the air out of the product,” Brundage says of the process.

The resulting pellets can be extruded into new products. Currently the material is sold to a manufacturer that uses it to make parking bumpers. However, he says Intercon is looking to adapt its densifier to include an extruder so the company can manufacture parking bumpers on site. “We thought it would be cool to be able to give them back to our customers,” Brundage adds.

Intercon’s technology took two years to develop. The company processes 10 to 15 trailer loads of material through the machine per week.

While EPS packaging may make up a small portion of the waste stream relative to other recyclables, it presents opportunities for companies that have explored innovative solutions.