12-18-2013, 06:29 AM
You CAN take styrofoam packing to many of the shipping locations around island & to K's in Hilo for reuse... but most people would not want to bother with the saving, storing & transport, so the stuff ends up not being re-used...
Added for Derrick - the island is going/almost gone to no plastic shopping bags (new year no more for 5 cents) & fairly inexpensive re-usable bags to purchase - some people like, others do not, in fact here were a few threads on that a year ago..
Foam also uses very little feed stock for the amount of product (a foam plate or container uses a fraction of the plastic used for a solid plastic plate or container. also, styrene is a plastic with a fairly pure feedstock ratio & is a very good candidate for "full cycle" reuse back to feedstock
McD's stopped using styrofoam almost 15 yrs ago, I only know as we were working on a pilot program with them in the late 90's for "full cycle" reuse of styrofoam, to not only "re-cyle" the styrene products, but to remanufacture into feed stock so that it could used for many items, including food containers... very involved system, but at the same time there was a protest group against the clamshells ( the pilot program was still in the research mode & not public) - McD's pulled the clamshells & the research... also how I have seen the power of public action & industry... interesting to note, they went from mostly styrene based products to "better" paper based products, most with a poly film, which makes them less re-useable & still have almost the same plastic... they have since reduced the poly film use, but it still is in many of their packages... Oh well!
Added for Derrick - the island is going/almost gone to no plastic shopping bags (new year no more for 5 cents) & fairly inexpensive re-usable bags to purchase - some people like, others do not, in fact here were a few threads on that a year ago..
Foam also uses very little feed stock for the amount of product (a foam plate or container uses a fraction of the plastic used for a solid plastic plate or container. also, styrene is a plastic with a fairly pure feedstock ratio & is a very good candidate for "full cycle" reuse back to feedstock
McD's stopped using styrofoam almost 15 yrs ago, I only know as we were working on a pilot program with them in the late 90's for "full cycle" reuse of styrofoam, to not only "re-cyle" the styrene products, but to remanufacture into feed stock so that it could used for many items, including food containers... very involved system, but at the same time there was a protest group against the clamshells ( the pilot program was still in the research mode & not public) - McD's pulled the clamshells & the research... also how I have seen the power of public action & industry... interesting to note, they went from mostly styrene based products to "better" paper based products, most with a poly film, which makes them less re-useable & still have almost the same plastic... they have since reduced the poly film use, but it still is in many of their packages... Oh well!