How to Recycle Styrofoam Blocks

Cut Styrofoam blocks into smaller pieces to reuse when shipping packages.

Styrofoam provides a light-weight shipping material for protecting items without raising the cost of postage. The downside comes from its harmful effects on the environment. Styrofoam takes over a million years to decompose and often causes death in animals who eat it. Instead of throwing this harmful material out with the trash, find ways to recycle or reuse it and help protect the planet.

Instructions

1. Call the nearest recycling center and ask if they take Styrofoam blocks. If they do, collect blocks and drop them off with the other recyclable items on a monthly basis, or put them in a recycling box on your curb if your county does curbside recycling. Form a recycling group with friends or neighbors, and alternate who drives the group's collection of Styrofoam blocks and other recyclable items to the recycling center.

2. Cut up the Styrofoam blocks and use them for padding in boxes that hold breakable objects, such as glass figurines or Christmas ornaments. Pad boxes for shipping with pieces of Styrofoam and save the extra in a large bag or old pillow case. GreenLivingTips.com suggests asking at a craft stores if they need Styrofoam blocks for use in shipping.

3. Search Earth911.com for "polystyrene." According to GreenLivingTips, entering this search term--the technical term for the material Styrofoam is made from--will locate the recycling center nearest you that accepts Styrofoam.

4. Ask friends and family if they need any Styrofoam for craft projects, storage material or shipping supplies. Let them use the material and, when they no longer need it, they can pass it along to someone else. An elementary school or church may need Styrofoam blocks for projects or padding boxes to store supplies.

References

• Green Living Tips: Recycling Styrofoam
• No MOre Trash!: Litter Facts

Resources

• Search for Local Styrofoam Recycling Centers