Where it Goes: Foam
Do you ever wonder what happens to the items you drop off at Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub? This series of mini blogs will help shine some light on our various pathways for recycling and reuse for different materials. This time we’ll explore the many types of foam accepted by the Hub!
The Hub accepts several foams including:
Clean, white EPS (expanded polystyrene, often called Styrofoam™)
Food and colored polystyrene foam (also called PSP, or polystyrene paper foam)
Plastic foam and sheets (also called polyethylene foam)
Polystyrene packing peanuts (Please note: cornstarch packing peanuts are dissolvable in water and are not accepted at the Hub)
The foam’s destination for reuse or recycling is dependent on the type of foam and its reusability (cleanliness, condition, etc.).
Let’s start with our reuse outlets. Some foam items are made available in the Hub’s 4th floor reuse shop for takeaway, giving them a second life before they are recycled. This often includes EPS coolers or larger pieces of EPS that are well-suited for crafts or insulation. Plastic foam and sheets and polystyrene packing peanuts are also often available in the reuse shop. Many customers who own small businesses are able to avoid purchasing new packing materials for their products by picking up these gently used materials from the Hub.
Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub also partners with local organizations to extend the useful life of some items. For example, the Hub provides EPS coolers to local non-profits like Coolers for Cats. With a little creativity and a few alterations, large coolers can make well-insulated shelters for homeless cats in inclement weather.
If foam items are not suited for reuse, they are recycled through a few partnerships. The Hub’s partners for recycling clean, white EPS are Boone County Solid Waste and EcoDevelopment. The Hub collects the EPS in large gaylord bags until there is enough for a truckload. Then, it’s picked up from the Hub by Boone County Solid Waste, which densifies the foam, and transports it to EcoDevelopment.
Densification is very important when it comes to efficiency in EPS transportation because undensified EPS doesn’t weigh much, but takes up a LOT of room (One gaylord bag of EPS only weighs 8 pounds, but takes up about 40 cubic feet of space!).
EcoDevelopment, located in Mason, Ohio, supplies the densified EPS to end-users that use the recycled material in new products. Some examples of finished products using recycled EPS include home insulation, (reach out to EcoDevelopment for more examples).
The Hub’s recycling outlet for food and colored polystyrene foam, plastic foam and sheets, and polystyrene packing peanuts is Brightmark in Ashley, Indiana. Brightmark uses an innovative pyrolysis process that enables it to process traditionally hard-to-recycle plastics into commercial-grade ultra-low sulfur diesel, new plastics, or industrial wax for use in new applications. This reduces the need for the extraction of virgin materials.
Because foams are notoriously difficult to recycle and often end up in landfills or polluting our environment, the Hub stands out as a unique outlet for these materials in our region. Thanks to the support of our customers and partners, Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub diverted nearly 730 pounds of EPS coolers through reuse and 9,700 pounds of clean, white EPS through recycling in 2024!
If you missed our first mini blog in the series, Where it Goes: TerraCycle be sure to check it out! If you’d like to learn more about Brightmark, mentioned as one of the Hub’s foam recycling partners above, their process will be explored in more detail in the next blog in the series: Where it Goes: Brightmark, as the Hub partners with them to process some rigid plastics, as well!
