[GreenYes] Re: City business recycles Styrofoam

["David Biddle" <Dbiddle@no.address>]

Title: Re: [GreenYes] City business recycles Styrofoam

Can I just ask: is this recycling or reuse? This is great, and certainly others could follow suit, especially maybe the computer industry. But I’m just wondering about the media’s improper use of terminology...or maybe I’ve just missed too many NRC conferences.

In this case, with polystyrenes, I’m sure many GreenListers recall the old days of polystyrene recycling (NPRC??) and how the industry invested all this money in processing and end-markets and as soon as they’d turned it into a non-issue, they packed up and went off into the sunset. I actually thought this article might be the re-emergence of that old technology. 

Db
-- 
David Biddle, Executive Director
<http://www.blueolives.blogspot.com>
Greater Philadelphia Commercial Recycling Council
P.O. Box 4037
Philadelphia, PA 19118

215-247-3090 (desk)
215-432-8225 (cell)

<http://www.gpcrc.com>

Read In Business magazine to learn about sustainable 
businesses in communities across North America! 
Go to: <http://www.jgpress.com/inbusine.htm>



on 1/2/08 11:54 AM, Reindl, John at Reindl@no.address wrote:

> I thought that you might like to see this excerpt from a local newspaper article about recycling polystyrene foam, as well as have the web page for the machine that this company uses to form shipping bits from foam blocks.
>
> Best wishes, 
>
> John 
> .......................... 
>
>
> City business recycles Styrofoam 
> By Ron Seely 
>
> If you 're frustrated trying to get rid of all the Styrofoam packing that now resides in your garage or basement after all the Christmas gifts were unwrapped, imagine having an entire store full of the pesky stuff.
>
> Just about everything sold at Home Concept off the Beltline comes cushioned in blocks of the hard foam packing. Three months ago, Home Concept founder and president Steve Brielmaier realized that about 80 percent of the space in the trash bins behind the store was taken up by Styrofoam.
>
> . 
> . 
> . 
> The secret to Brielmaier 's recycling effort is a surprisingly simple machine that he purchased from a company called Demand Products in Alpharetta, Ga. The device is a small square frame with interlaced wires that are heated with an electrical current. Broken-up blocks of Styrofoam are fed through the hot-wire grid of 1-inch squares, cutting into the foam. The foam bits are then used as packing for the lamps that are shipped through LampsUSA, Brielmaier 's Internet lamp business.
>
> (full story is at http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/265008) 
>
> The cutting machine can be seen on the Internet at http://www.demandproducts.com/recyk.html