How to Recycle Expanded Polystyrene

Cups made of expanded polystyrene must be cleaned before recycling.

Expanded polystyrene, also known as EPS and Plastic No. 6, insulates and cushions because it is 98-percent air. It is used for fast-food coffee cups, as restaurant containers for leftovers and for packaging practically all new electronics. One extrusion of EPS, called styrofoam peanuts, is practically ubiquitous. EPS is also a major component of the Texas-sized, floating trash pile midway between California and Japan called the North Pacific Gyre or the North Pacific Trash Vortex. The Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, a group funded by the manufacturers of EPS suggest several ways you may recycle EPS.

Instructions

1. Find a recycling center near you by going to online referrers like The Recycling Center (therecyclingcenter.info/) or Earth 911 at (earth911.com/).

2. Call your local recycling center to find out if it will accept your EPS. Most recyclers will accept packaging materials free of all tapes and labels but not food or medical containers.

3. Clean and break up EPS materials your local recycling center will not accept and mail the broken pieces to an Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers "mail-back recycling" location. Find the address of your mail-back recycling location at the Association's recycling page (see Resources).

4. Reuse Styrofoam peanuts or donate them to UPS and other shipping companies. Call the automated, 24-hour "Peanut Hot Line" at 800-828-2214 as of June 2011 to find a site near you that will take your peanuts.

References

• Earth 911; "Recycling Mystery: Expanded Polystyrene"; Kasen Seaver, March 2009
• ACH Foam Technologies; "Recycle Expanded Polystyrene"

Resources

• Alliance of Foam Packaging; "Recycle Your EPS"; 2010