Recycle Styrofoam?

[villages07]

Can Styrofoam be recycled in TV?

These are foam blocks used to ship electronics. They have a #6 recycle symbol on them but TV's recycle guide indicated #6 for plastic bottles.

How about styrofoam packing peanuts?

[KathieI]

Can Styrofoam be recycled in TV?
These are foam blocks used to ship electronics. They have a #6 recycle symbol on them but TV's recycle guide indicated #6 for plastic bottles. How about styrofoam packing peanuts?


#6 designation means that the package has a content of polystyrene in it. The styrofoam blocks are really EPS (expanded polystyrene) and this form of material is very much recyclable, actually its a very preferred material to reuse and recycle. However, you need clarification from the TV peeps to determine if they will accept it because they need to have a recycling manufacturer that can handle that material. The peanuts (which is the same material just in a different form), it is the same material as meat trays that are sold in supermarkets. So if they accept the meat trays, they should accept the styrofoam blocks.

Generally, #6 is not used for bottles per se, but used on clear take out containers from restaurants, etc.

Just an fyi from a packaging engineer. Hope this helps.

[Muncle]

I've got a pile of those peanuts I want to mail to my brother. What's the best thing to pack them with to make sure they don't get damaged in transit?

[Sandy222]

Maybe we need some clarification of items that can be recycled. Personally anything I have that has a recycle symbol is going into my clear trash bag for recycling. Got to hope this is helping the environment.

[JohnnyM]

Muncle bubble wrap should do the trick. Lot's of bubble wrap :bigthumbsup:

[redwitch]

Nope to recycling styrofoam in TV. Sadly, as environmentally correct as the Bay Area is, they didn't recycle styrofoam, either. Just not enough plants set up to do it.

I don't know what the policy is here, but in California if they saw things not on their list for recycling, they just wouldn't empty your recycling bin. It may be that here your bag would just be sent to the dump if they saw something like styrofoam in it. Might be interesting to see exactly what the policy is here.

[villages07]

Here's a link to the simple guidelines that TV published, hence, my confusion. So, you packaging and product experts...after reading this, is styrofoam in or out? Guess I could call them too.

http://www.districtgov.org/images/whatsnew/recycle1.pdf

[deeva211]

Here's a link to the simple guidelines that TV published, hence, my confusion. So, you packaging and product experts...after reading this, is styrofoam in or out? Guess I could call them too.

http://www.districtgov.org/images/whatsnew/recycle1.pdf


I called them because basically that list only mentions bottles with small necks. When I called, they told me that whoever wrote that list really screwed up. She said to recycle anything that has the triangle with the numbers in it.

[villages07]

Thank you deeva.....that makes a lot more sense than the abbreviated list.

[mcelheny]

deeva211,
Thanks for the info. I have been putting everything in my recycling bag and found I have to only put out the garbage bag once a month. :bigthumbsup: