A Word on Styrofoam

StyroFoam is the trade mark name for a particular type of foam made by Dow Chemical. Restaurant foam is high density polypropylene that more resembles shipping foam and is technically called Polystyrene Foam.

Polystyrene Foam is a petroleum based product that has already been banned from nearly 100 American cities. It takes hundreds of years to decompose and is a large component of marine debris. It has also been linked to starvation in marine wildlife and birds.

One of the reasons this foam is so popular is that is takes very little material to make it as air is the principle component in the product by volume. It is light and very cheap to transport by mail, truck, etc.

It's lightness is what makes it so difficult to recycle. For recycling to work, there needs to be a profit in the resale of materials. There simply isn't enough material in foam for most collectors to bulk and sell. To compound the problems, most post-consumer foam is contaminated with food which further degrades its ability to be reused.

Polystyrene isn't just used in foam products. Flip over a plastic container. If you see #6, it is made from polystyrene. It is most commonly used in meat and bakery trays, clear take-out containers, some plastic cutlery and cups.

Polystyrene may leach styrene into food it comes into contact with. A recent study in Environmental Health Perspectives concluded that some styrene compounds leaching from food containers are estrogenic (meaning they can disrupt normal hormonal functioning). Styrene is also considered a possible human carcinogen by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Very rarely are polystyrene products recycled. In a factory setting where there is clean industrial waste, it can go back into the process. Although it seems like polystyrene is everywhere, like in restaurants and cafeterias, consumer use actually pales in comparison to industrial use.

Regardless, polystyrene products are not good for the planet, or humans, in any quantity.

I just found out today that a company that actually recycles polystyrene, Blue Earth Solutions, is opening a plant in Memphis. No word yet whether they handle post-consumer polystyrene, but it's good to know that the mountains of polystyrene used in our industrial sector will have a place to go.