Oregon Nonprofit Ceases Styrofoam Recycling
For Lane County, Oregon residents, Styrofoam recycling was always a little tough, but now it’s even harder. According to The Register-Guard, the nonprofit NextStep Recycling has announced that it will no longer accept the material for recycling.
Lane County officials are scrambling to get a recycling plan together as NextStep's announcement will make Styrofoam recycling a lot harder for residents. Photo: UOregon.edu
NextStep Recycling reuses and recycles computers and other electronics and has accepted Styrofoam for the past four years, processing 576,000 pounds. The agency cites cost as the main reason for ceasing the recycling.
“We’ve subsidized the processing since the beginning because we can never really charge enough to handle this,” Executive Director Lorraine Kerwood tells The Register-Guard. “But we’re not in the polystyrene business. We’re in the reuse business.”
Because of its light weight, Styrofoam (also known as number 6 polystyrene) is often harder to recycle. In general, many companies are leery about recycling Styrofoam, because it tends to be a fairly expensive process.
However, recycling polystyrene is an emerging market; Los Angeles, the second largest city in the U.S., has implemented a curbside program for recycling clean polystyrene products.
While NextStep will no longer accept block foam, it will still take packing foam peanuts. In the meantime, county officials have scheduled a meeting to brainstorm a comprehensive recycling plan for recycling the material as it is not accepted in Lane County’s curbside program.
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Barb Thoroughman
posted on July 8th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I appreciated this article. I did not know that anyone recycled this material. I’ve always cringed when I buy a product that “has to be” packaged within huge blocks of styrofoam. When are manufacturers/packing companies going to find a different material to keep goods safe when shipped? That seems to be the key…not recycling polystyrene.
Trey Granger
posted on July 8th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Not all of the packing materials are Styrofoam, or even #6 plastic. The softer foam that is more flexible is usually LDPE, or #4 plastic.
Mark
posted on July 10th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I had a quick idea to throw out there…
Is it possible to shred styrofoam into small enough pieces
that it could be blown into a wall or attic space just like
the recycled newspaper blown in insulation?
It would have a good R value.
It likely wouldn’t settle as much.
All you would need is a way to shred it and bag it for use.
Might be something worth looking into.
Thanks
schoey
posted on August 3rd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to just use peanuts, bubble rap and other blown up plastic. these products are reusable or recyclable as long as they are made out of proper recyclable material.