Fayette County, Pennsylvania, residents can now recycle foam polystyrene (PS) at the drop-off center in the county seat of Uniontown. The county, which includes 42 municipalities and over 128,000 residents, received a $49,000 grant from the Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Foam Recycling Coalition (FRC) to add a foam densifier system to the drop-off center to recycle foam polystyrene including cups, plates, egg cartons, takeout clamshells and electronics packaging.
“Shortly after we opened the Fayette County Recycling Convenience Center last year, residents started asking us to accept foam products. The sheer volume of those requests really highlighted how much of a need there was for this in our area. We’re excited to be able to offer a service that our citizens asked for,” said Sheila Shea, recycling coordinator for Fayette County. “We’re extremely grateful to have our new foam densifier and really appreciate the hands-on approach the Foam Cycle team has taken in helping us get the program up and running. This is a wonderful addition to our services that will allow us to continue our mission of keeping Fayette County green.”
The grant supports the purchase of a Foam Cycle system that densifies PS foam into foam ingots at a compaction ratio of 90:1, removing 98% of the air from the loose material. “The Fayette County drop-off center is an important example of a county-level effort to offer more recycling services to its communities and residents,” said Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, which oversees FRC. “The addition of the foam densifier expands recycling access to the county’s residents and increases the diversion of foam polystyrene from landfills.”
The grant is made possible through contributions to FRC, which focuses exclusively on increased recycling of post-consumer foam polystyrene. Its members include Americas Styrenics; Chick-fil-A; CKF Inc.; Dart Container Corp.; Dolco; Dyne-A-Pak; Genpak; INEOS Styrolution America LLC; Lifoam Industries, LLC; Pactiv Evergreen; and Republic Plastics. Fayette County is the 26th grant recipient to receive this funding since 2015. Over 8 million additional residents in the U.S. and Canada can recycle foam polystyrene as a result of FRC grants.