Polystyrene Recycling Infographic

There appears to be a very common misconception around the world that EPS is not recyclable. Expanded Polystyrene is recyclable, in fact there are a number of ways that it can be processed to give our used polystyrene boxes a new lease of life. EPS is a thermoplastic meaning it can be melted down and turned into many other rigid plastics items.

Prior to recycling as with many other recyclables EPS needs to be segregated, however once sorted and free of contamination the material can be processed in the following ways:

• Compacting – This process significantly reduces the materials volume using a machine that exerts a huge amount of hydraulic pressure. Once compacted into super dense bales the material can be shipped more economically to then be heated up and turning into polystyrene pellets. This material can then be made into other useful day to day items.
   
• Granulation – Polystyrene boxes are typically light densities and if contamination free can be processed through a special granulator the resulting bead like material can then be dosed straight back into the production mix as a small percentage to mould new EPS products.

We have put together this infographic to demonstrate just how resource efficient and recyclable EPS actually is.

Download the infographic here.