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Polystyrene is not clogging our landfills. All Polystyrene packaging (food service, protective packaging, etc.) comprises only a tiny fraction of the material that goes into our landfills. In fact, less than one percent by weight of the total municipal solid waste disposed is Polystyrene. Paper and paperboard products make up the largest category of material disposed in our landfills (about 31 percent), followed by food (almost 15 percent).
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Options to safely and efficiently dispose of Polystyrene are the same as those for other municipally generated wastes. See information on Enviromark and drop off sites.
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Polystyrene can be recycled in those areas where programs exist. It is important to remember that most paper-based food service products are coated with materials, such as wax or polyethylene, that render them difficult, if not impossible, to recycle.
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There are many products made from recycled Polystyrene, including picture frames, coat hangers, skirting, cutlery, seedling trays. For more information on products made from recycled plastic, contact us.
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The Polystyrene industry will continue to promote recycling only where it makes economic and environmental sense. Recycling is one of several options for disposing of products and is just one aspect of a larger, complex, interrelated issue. For recycling to be successful, it must be cost effective. It should be noted that recycling has not occurred at the point an item is put in a recycling bin. For recycling to occur, consumers must demand and purchase products made from recycled materials. This is true for Polystyrene recycling. Recycling of Polystyrene will increase when consumer demand for products made with recycled Polystyrene increases.
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A method of Polystyrene source reduction is the process of de-gasification of Polystyrene. In this process, a solution is applied to foamed Polystyrene that de-gasifies the material and densifies it into a gel-like substance. The goal is to further process this gel by removing the dissolving solution and recovering the polystyrene. The solutions currently being worked with are both citrus-based and non-citrus-based.
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Although de-gasification technology has been known for decades, this process has not, as yet, been successfully commercialized to recycle polystyrene into new products. There are several firms currently attempting to reach this goal, but so far, only the densification portion of this process has been commercially established. Also, although no publicly accessible economic information is available, many industry observers have estimated that at this time the full cost of the recycled Polystyrene will exceed the cost of virgin Polystyrene. This technology will continue to be monitored as technical and cost information emerges and the marketplace has an opportunity to prove its long-term viability.
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A very common misconception is that materials biodegrade in a meaningful timeframe in today's landfills. It is often mistakenly thought that landfills are vast composters, when in reality, they are vast mummifiers of waste. Very little of the waste discarded in today's modern, highly engineered landfills, including paper, plastic, and even food, biodegrades - and it's not supposed to. Because degradation of materials can create potentially harmful liquid and gaseous byproducts that could contaminate groundwater and air, today's landfills are designed to minimize contact with air and water required for degradation to occur, thereby practically eliminating the degradation of waste.
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No chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are currently used in the domestic manufacture of Polystyrene packaging products and haven't been since 1990. Most (about 70 percent) Polystyrene foam products never were made with CFCs.
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High impact polystyrene, HIPolystyrene is used in many applications because of its excellent balance of properties and low cost. Electrical/Electronics and appliances are the two most important segments requiring flame redundancy in applications where temperature does not exceed 80?‚�C.
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Pentane itself is not a health hazard, nor is it a significant contributor to smog, and has no effect on the upper stratospheric ozone layer. Technology has been introduced which recycles the pentane and uses it as a fuel within the plant. Where smog formation is a concern, manufacturers use state-of-the-art technology to capture pentane emissions.
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All carbonaceous materials (wood, paper, charcoal, plastic, etc.) create noxious fumes when burned in uncontrolled situations. However, all of these materials, including Polystyrene, can be safely incinerated in a modern combustion facility. Incineration converts Polystyrene to carbon dioxide, water vapor, and a very small amount of nontoxic ash. Also, Incineration of Polystyrene generates large quantities of usable energy -- approximately 16,000 BTUs/pound, which is twice that of coal.
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Polystyrene is an inert substance. In addition, the production aids used to make food service Polystyrene packaging are few in number and pose no known threat to human health or the environment. Production processes contain numerous emission control devices that capture and reduce emissions. Examples of the small amount of hazardous waste generated are solvents and inks from printing on finished Polystyrene products (industry uses water based and high solids inks), and any spills of intermediate chemicals that might be used to make Polystyrene in polymer plants.
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A widely held misconception is that litter is a problem caused by specific materials themselves rather than aberrant consumer behavior. The unfortunate reality is that some people improperly dispose of materials by littering. Littering is a matter of behavior; people who improperly discard materials into the environment usually do so because they don't think or don't care. Attributing the litter issue to one particular packaging material does not solve the problem because another type of packaging will take its place as litter unless behavior changes.The use of information and education to change behavior is the best method to reduce litter.
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The manufacture of all plastics consumed approximately three percent of the total petroleum used in the US in 1997, and Polystyrene production comprised approximately .002 percent of that amount. Comparatively, 71 percent of total petroleum used in the US is used for gasoline, jet, and diesel fuel, and 26 percent for the production of asphalt, oils and lubricants.
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Global warming regulations should have minimal direct impact on the Polystyrene industry. The primary pollutants that contribute to global warming come from industry segments other than the plastics industry such as the oil industry (refineries) and the automotive industry (hydrocarbon emissions from cars). There are few greenhouse gas emissions generated by the Polystyrene industry, and Polystyrene product manufacturers have phased out the use of CFCs as blowing agents. Indirectly, increased global warming regulations will cause Polystyrene manufacturers to incur higher electricity costs for manufacturing as well as higher fuel costs for transportation.
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Life cycle analysis (LCA), or a "cradle-to-grave" study, has been conducted comparing Polystyrene to its paperboard and reusable alternatives, particularly in packaging applications. These studies include all processes from raw material acquisition, to ultimate disposal of the product. In most cases, Polystyrene compares favorably from an overall energy and environmental emissions standpoint when compared to its alternate material counterparts. All products have environmental and energy burdens associated with the use of raw materials and conversion into products. Several LCA studies conducted in the US and Europe confirm the environmental acceptability of Polystyrene.
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There are currently no applications for degradable Polystyrene resins. Degradable plastics are primarily used where applications require this feature -- such as sutures, or agricultural mulch film designed to break down once buried under the soil. The FDA has not been asked to, and therefore has not yet approved, the use of degradable plastics for food service products.
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As consumers become more environmentally conscious they are increasingly concerned about the environmental component of products and services available in their society. Consumer choices are often made instinctively, from necessity, because a detailed analysis of the relative environmental merits of using canned verses fresh verses steel verses aluminium packaging would simply be time consuming for each purchase.
If, however, the environmental merit question is restricted to a small enough purchase sector it is possible to conduct a complete analysis of relative merit from the initial resource through the manufacturing stages, using attributes, and recycle options through to final use or disposal of the items.
One such analysis was conducted recently, comparing single-use uncoated paper cuPolystyrene and moulded polystyrene foam (polyfoam) cuPolystyrene in hot drink applications. This analysis concluded that polyfoam cuPolystyrene have an environmental merit at least similar to that of paper cuPolystyrene.
What are they made of? The major raw material for a paper cup is wood, a renewable resource. However, acquisition of wood for pulp making has visibly negative impacts on the landscape from the construction of road access and typical clear-cutting practices. When the clear-cut area occupies an extensive proportion of a watershed, it increases maximum flows and decreases minimum flows of streams draining the watershed, increasing the likelihood of flood and drought in the area served by these streams, although modern management can minimise all of these impacts.
Paper cuPolystyrene are made from bleached pulp, which in turn is obtained in yields of about 50% by weight from wood chiPolystyrene. Bark and some wood waste are also burned to supply a part of the energy requirements of the papermaking process. Thus, an average of some 26 grams of wood plus, for additional energy requirements an average of about 2g of residual fuel oil or natural gas, is
consumed per paper cup with a finished weight of 10.1 g. More petroleum than this would be needed if the paper cup had a plastic or wax coating, but this option is excluded in this analysis.
A polyfoam cup is made entirely from hydrocarbons (oil and/or gas). Impacts from petroleum exploration and recovery are also significant, from the former particularly in sensitive northern ecosystems and from the latter pre-dominantly from accidental spills during drilling, production, or delivery.
Chemicals used. Inorganic chemicals are also required for the paper making process. Relatively small amounts of sodium hydroxide or sodium sulphate are needed for pulping ( because much of these chemicals can be recycled ),but larger amounts of chlorine, sodium hydroxide, sodium chlorate, sulphuric acid, and other materials are used on a once-through basis in the bleaching process to the extent of 110 to170 kg's per metric ton of pulp. The total non-recycled chemical requirement thus works out to an average of about 1.4 g per paper cup.
The superior properties of Polystyrene foam over uncoated paper in a hot drink cup application allow the use of only 15% to 25% as much material to produce a cup. Chemical requirements for polystyrene production are small, totally about 33kg per metric ton. This amounts to 0.005g per cup; or about 4% of the chemical requirements of the paper cup.
Production needs: The paper cup consumes about 10 times as much steam, 14to 20 times as much electricity and twice as much cooling water as a polystyrene foam cup. About 300 times the volume of waste water is produced for the pulp required for the paper cup as compared to the polystyrene required for the polystyrene foam cup. The contaminants present in the wastewater from pulping and bleaching operations are removed to a varying degree depending on site-specific details, but the residuals present in all categories except mineral salts would still amount to 10 to 40 times those present in the wastewater streams from polystyrene processing.
Emissions to air total some 14 kg per metric ton of bleached pulp and about 46kg per metric ton of polystyrene. But because paper cuPolystyrene are four times heavier than polyfoam cuPolystyrene, each paper cup results to 1.3 to 1.8 times more mass of air emissions than each polyfoam cup.
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The wholesale price of a paper cup is about 2 and a half times as much as polyfoam, partly from its greater consumption of raw materials and utilities, and partly from higher labour costs.
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The technical side of recycle capability with the polystyrene foam is also straight forward. The restriction that recycled resin may not be used in food applications only partially limits the many possible end uses for recycled polystyrene such as in packaging materials, insulation, patio furniture, etc. Recycle operating problems have largely been solved. An improved infrastructure is all that is required to make this option a more significant reality and convert this perceived negative aspect of polyfoam use to a positive one. The non water-soluble hot melt or solvent-based adhesive used to bind the parts of the paper cup together makes the recycling of this product less straightforward.
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Polystyrene is relatively inert to decomposition when discarded to landfill. However, there is also increasingly evidence that disposal of paper to landfill does not necessarily result in degradation or bio-decomposition,
particularly in arid regions. If the paper does decompose in a wet land-fill, it produces substantial quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, much of which is lost to the air. At the same time, water-soluble substances, which consume oxygen, are contributed to any leachate from the landfill, which also have the potential to cause pollution problems.
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It can be seen from this summary of the analysis that even the relatively restricted question of paper verses polyfoam for hot drink cuPolystyrene is complex. But for single-use applications it would appear that polystyrene foam cuPolystyrene should be given a much more even-handed assessment as regards their environmental impact relative to paper cuPolystyrene than they have received during the past few years.
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Polystyrene that is used to make hot and cold drink cuPolystyrene is made up of very large and inertmolecules that are non-toxic and do not migrate readily into drinks.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the safety of food-contact packaging. This responsibility includes setting standards for minimizing residual materials present in packaging. FDAregulations allow the use of polystyrene as a food-contact packaging material. Polystyrene can contain low levels of residual styrene and ethylbenzene from the manufacturing process. Since the early 1990s, the polystyrene industry has conducted tests and provided the FDA with data that demonstrates that the minor amount of styrene and ethylbenzene that migrate out of food-contact styrenic polymers do not pose a health risk. Read more
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Since 1988, the Styrene Information and Research Center (SIRC) has sponsored a comprehensive research program to better understand the potential, if any, for styrene to affect human health.
The results of extensive peer-reviewed studies of workers in styrene-related industries collectively show that exposure to styrene does not increase the risk of cancer. These studies covered more than 55,000 people who worked with styrene in the United States and Europe over a 45-year period. The workers encountered exposure levels orders of magnitude greater than the very low levels detected in the environment. A lack of cancer-causing effects in these workers is a strong indicator that exposure of the general public to environmental levels of styrene should not cause health effects. Read more
Both foamed and solid polystyrene containers, as well as food-contact plastics that are designed to contain food in a microwave oven during cooking, do not pose a food safety concern when used or re-used in such oven to heat or re-heat food. Read more
A new screening study by researchers in Japan reports that some components of polystyrene (styrene dimers
and trimers) that may migrate from a container into the contents of a container during microwaving or heating,
might have endocrine activity. Read more
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Environmental
Is Polystyrene clogging our landfills?
Polystyrene is not clogging our landfills. All Polystyrene packaging (food service, protective packaging, etc.)
comprises only a tiny fraction of the material that goes into our landfills. In fact, less than one
percent by weight of the total municipal solid waste disposed is Polystyrene. Paper and paperboard
products make up the largest category of material disposed in our landfills (31.3 percent),
followed by food (13.6 percent).
What are my options for disposing of my Polystyrene?
Options to safely and efficiently dispose of Polystyrene are the same as those for other municipally
generated wastes. This includes the integrated solid waste management system advocated by the
U.S. EPA: source reduction, reuse, recycling, waste combustion. Read more
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Dear Andrew
Tangel (Missouri News-Leader, reporter):
Thanks for the call today, July 8, regarding your inquiry about possible health effects of mircowaving food in polystyrene containers. It's my understanding you will be writing a short column for the Missouri News-Leader on this topic. Read more
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