When Recycle Utah agreed to accept packing Styrofoam a few years ago, they had no idea of the volume they’d receive, said operations manager Shannon Beglin.
“We expected it to be a holiday thing, but it’s a 7-days-a-week thing,” he said. “It’s almost overwhelming to us.”
Last year they had to contract for a truck to drive a 40-foot trailer filled with the white squeaky stuff to a recycler in Salt Lake City nearly every week. Because it’s sold by the pound, Recycle Utah got pennies for their effort.
Because Styrofoam is mostly air, it works well as packaging but it also is a horrible source of litter, he explained.
In a landfill, the chemicals it’s made of break down and impact ground water, executive director Insa Riepen added.
Since July, the recycling center has been experimenting with a brand new machine to “densify” the foam it receives. To clarify, the machine is an experiment.
Last year a fundraiser raised the $10,000 needed to contract with a Cache county company to design a prototype. The company has been redesigning it constantly. What’s there now looks nothing like the machine that arrived in July, Riepen said.
The current model performs hydraulic miracles. It churns Styrofoam blocks into small chunks, then pulverizes them, then compresses them into a brick.
Riepen said it’s like taking a hot air balloon-sized bag of foam and turning it into something that would fit in the balloon’s basket.
“So much of a carbon footprint is reduced, it’s great,” said center spokesperson Lola Beatlebrox.
Speaking more technically, the machine can turn five or six gaylord bags (which can hold about 40 cubic feet of material) into a brick that’s 6 by 6 inches and 1 foot long, Beglin said.
Now, instead of paying for a truck to empty a huge dumpster weekly, a Recycle Utah worker can take a pickup down to Salt Lake with two palettes of white bricks every six to eight weeks.
Because the foam is compacted, it also won’t blow out of the truck and litter along the way, Beatlebrox said.
This machine will allow Recycle Utah to continue being one of the only places in the state that accepts Styrofoam and delivers it to manufacturer to be reused, Beglin said.
As Summit County has grown, the amount of Styrofoam brought to the center has only increased. That’s good news for the landfill, but is a daunting responsibility for Recycle Utah, Shannon said.
As Americans get ready for television to go digital, many are choosing to purchase new sets, making packing foam for electronics by far the most common type the center receives, Beatlebrox said.
Unfortunately, only dry foam is accepted. Nothing used in the packaging or holding of food or drink can be recycled.
Recyclers from all over have been coming to the center to see the densifier, Riepen said. Nothing that small has ever been used in Utah, she said.