Virginie Bussières and her colleagues at Montreal-based Pyrowave are hoping to reform styrofoam — literally — into a resource that everyone wants to recycle. And they’re not the only ones. Montreal-based Polystyvert and Brantford, Ont., based GreenMantra have a similar vision, but different technological solutions.
The material commonly called styrofoam is properly known as expanded polystyrene foam or EPS, which comes in a variety of colors (not to be confused with Styrofoam, a trademarked brand of extruded polystyrene foam or EPS used to make blue insulation boards.)
A recent report from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce found that, in 2012, 80 percent of styrofoam waste in Canada, more than 6,500 tonnes, ended up in landfills or waterways. That’s because most communities don’t recycle it — just 35 percent accept polystyrene in their recycling programs, according to the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. It’s even worse in the U.S., which recycled less than four percent of its polystyrene containers and packaging in 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency reports.
The main problem is it’s not cost-effective to collect a material that’s so bulky and light, and breaks apart so easily, contaminating other recyclables. And there aren’t a lot of buyers once it’s collected. Many jurisdictions, including the City of Toronto, have to effectively pay companies to take it. But the cost isn’t the only issue with traditional, “mechanical” recycling.
Bussières, vice-president of communications, marketing and government affairs for Pyrowave, says it also has trouble coping with contamination from things like food residues that are often found on food containers. And as with most plastics, traditional styrofoam recycling is not actually a cycle.
After processing, it’s no longer expandable or foam-like. Instead, it gets turned into hard plastic for things like crown moldings, picture frames and park benches. That is, it can only be “recycled” once. That’s the difference with Pyrowave’s technology — it uses a “chemical recycling” process to take waste polystyrene and generate brand-new styrofoam.
Microwaves heat up and break down polystyrene molecules, which are long chains, into their individual links — called styrene. That in turn can be chemically processed back into polystyrene. “All the contamination is taken away in the process,” Bussières added.
That means the process can start with dirtier styrofoam than traditional recycling can handle, and generate new styrofoam with 100 per cent recycled content that’s identical to styrofoam made directly from petroleum.