Analyzing long-term recycling trends for post-consumer polystyrene and other post-consumer disposable food service packaging since the early 1990s, the data show a clear evolution of the polystyrene recycling industry towards the recycling of non-food service polystyrene materials. The recycling of expanded polystyrene (EPS) protective packaging and non-packaging polystyrene materials, (such as insulation board, audio/visual cassettes, and agricultural nursery trays/containers) has increased dramatically during this time period, and there has been a decrease in the amount of polystyrene food service packaging recycling during this period.
Today we continue to see growth in post-consumer polystyrene recycling in applications that have favorable recycling economics, such as protective packaging and non-packaging non-durables. These applications are less contaminated with food and other wastes than food service products are and therefore are more cost-effective to recycle. Currently, post-consumer food service polystyrene packaging is not recycled in a significant way. It is important to note that because of unfavorable economics, no other post-consumer food service disposable material is recycled in a measurable way.
The polystyrene industry has taken its investment in advancing polystyrene recycling very seriously. The National Polystyrene Recycling Company was created in the early 1990's to establish the viability of post-consumer recycling for a wide range of polystyrene applications. The industry invested approximately $85 million dollars, a majority of which were capital costs used to get the operations established. This spurred the current network of polystyrene recyclers, who today recycle approximately 50 million pounds of post-consumer polystyrene each year. This investment in polystyrene recycling, including food service applications, is very significant, given the near absence of paperboard food service recycling over the same time period. Unfortunately, time and experience have shown that the infrastructure needed to collect polystyrene and sell recovered material is not sustainable in all markets.
Polystyrene products remain very popular with consumers. All polystyrene packaging markets continue to grow, with more than 1.4 billion pounds sold in 1999, representing 22% of the total polystyrene market. Polystyrene food service products are an attractive choice because of their excellent insulation properties, their low cost compared to other disposable materials and reusables, their lower overall life cycle energy and environmental impacts, and their protection of public health and sanitation. However, the properties of polystyrene that make it an excellent packaging material -- its light weight, energy efficiency, strength and product performance -- work against the economics of recycling this material.
What is often lost in examining polystyrene's impact on the environment, particularly solid waste disposal, is that all polystyrene packaging comprises less than one percent by weight of the total municipal solid waste disposed in U.S. landfills. Moreover, the polystyrene (and plastics) industry has achieved significant landfill reduction through a combination of up-front actions - including source reduction and reuse. Recycling is only one of several ways to manage solid waste effectively. It is not the only answer for all environmental dilemmas.
The impact of these up-front activities is dramatic. More than 2.9 billion pounds of polystyrene packaging and disposables have been eliminated from the solid waste stream since 1974 through source reduction, product redesign and reuse.
