(Continue) Secondly, polystyrene waste comes from different channels. If we want to get a wide knowledge about it, we’d better learn the functions of EPS. Polystyrene is an excellent insulator. So it’s usually used in beer coolers and home insulation, and the hot coffee in a polystyrene cup doesn’t burn your fingers. Its lightness and malleability make it a good packing material, adding cushioning but little weight. EPS doesn’t react with other materials and is resistant to heat, so it has found wide use in the food industry in things like meat, hamburgers. Besides, because of its lightness, EPS is ideal for creating buoyancy in life vests and rafts. So we can find polystyrene in supermarket, fish market, food shop, school, etc. Also, EPS waste can be seen in some plastic centers or Styrofoam manufactures or moldings companies.
On the third of point, polystyrene usually can’t be recycled locally but has to be transported to a centralized plant. So as individual, it’ clever to send your EPS waste to recycling center because it will occupy your more space. Usually there are several recycling centers in one city. They will sort these polystyrene according to the level of cleanness. Recycling centers will compact these material to compacted blocks or melt them, which prepares for the reuse of EPS waste.
Last one, some companies (such as Intco) will reuse these waste material to make new products, such as picture frames. EPS recycling also can be used to make new packaging materials. As an environmental program, reuse of EPS waste attracts more and more attention in all over the world.