What you need to know about recycling Polystyrene and Styrofoam in the UK

Polystyrene and Styrofoam (known also by the technical name Expanded Polystyrene or EPS) are the most popular materials used for insulation in this modern age. Whether the materials are used for insulating walls, floors or for creating packaging insulation—in the form of Polystyrene peanuts—for electronic equipment, furniture and food and beverage items, they do the job wonderfully, but unfortunately they are usually only used for very short periods of time before being discarded and sent to the nearest landfill, where they will sit and not rot. This article will talk about the devastating effects that dumping Styrofoam and Polystyrene in landfills can create, and it will show you how recycling Styrofoam and recycling Polystyrene can not only help the environment, but can help your business as well.

 

If you don’t know the numbers involved, you might think that there isn’t anything wrong with throwing out Styrofoam and Polystyrene in landfills. To better understand the scope and reach of the problem, and how it could affect you personally, you have to realize a few things. First, it’s time for the numbers to shine through. The United Kingdom produces at least 250,000 tons of Polystyrene products each year. From all that’s produced, more than 30 million cubic meters of Polystyrene are sent to landfills in the United Kingdom each year (to make that quantity more understandable, it would be enough to fill more than 13 Olympic-sized swimming pools to the brim). It has recently been announced that UK landfills are expected to reach maximum capacity before the year 2021 comes around, and this should put the problem more into perspective. UK residents pay modest fees at the present to have their trash collected and disposed of, but that will all change when there’s no more space to deposit waste in UK landfills, so everyone will have to pay more for the same service is the situation isn’t remedied fast.

 

Once they are placed in the landfill, Styrofoam and Polystyrene mix together with the rest of the garbage accumulated there. The only difference is that, while the garbage around it breaks down naturally over time, Polystyrene and Styrofoam don’t. To add to that, the materials are very flammable—they are petrol-based—and if they burn, they release toxins into the air which can harm humans and animals alike.

 

Even when armed with all this knowledge, many people still refrain from even researching their options for recycling Styrofoam and recycling Polystyrene because of the assumption is that it will be difficult and expensive to get it done. The sad fact is that, in many countries around the world, recycling plants that handle plastic products regularly don’t engage in recycling Styrofoam and recycling Polystyrene, so if you live in some parts of the world you’d be right—it would be difficult and expensive.

 

There are a small number of passionate recycling companies in the UK, though, which undertake recycling Styrofoam and recycling Polystyrene specifically, and which perform the service for free to boot. And, for businesses, specialized centers dealing in recycling Styrofoam and recycling Polystyrene also offer a free pick-up service, whereas you can arrange for a suitable date and time for your EPS waste to be collected. What could be easier? Look for a reputable and professional company like PolyMelt to find out how easy recycling Styrofoam and Polystyrene can be, and start doing your part today.

If your business collects a lot of EPS waste that’s difficult and expensive to get rid of, find a reliable company like PolyMelt, which is prepared for recycling Polystyrene and recycling Styrofoam and dispose of your EPS waste problems while helping the environment at the same time.