- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
Lack Of Styrofoam Recycling Makes No Sense
I consider myself an average recycler.
I recycle almost all cardboard and paper and plastic that exits our house. However, I'm a little inconsistent with aluminum cans. Sometimes they get recycled and sometimes they don't.
And ever since the City of Cape Girardeau changed to the "single-stream" recycling program last spring, I no longer recycle glass. The City will only accept glass dropped off at a half-dozen designated collection points around town or at the recycling center on the Southern Expressway, but I don't bother. It doesn't seem worth the effort for the few beer or wine bottles we throw out.
However, there is one item that the city does not accept for recycling that has baffled me for a long time:
Expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam packaging.
Most people call it Styrofoam, a version of EPS foam trademarked by Dow Chemical Company.
EPS foam is commonly used in shipping a multitude of items, from peanut-sized packing material to blocks that are custom-formed to fit around specific items to keep them from being damaged to mini-coolers used to send perishable foods overnight.
This time of year especially showcases the amount of EPS that is used for shipping and packaging. Over the past two months, I have personally filled up more than an entire trash bin with packing foam that has come with items we've purchased.
While I may be just an average recycler, I've long thought it stupid to throw away a product that could be used over and over again with minimal re-processing.
Just last week my household received an order of frozen croissants and sticky buns from Williams-Sonoma. The items were shipped from California, each in its own mini foam cooler wrapped in plastic and kept frozen with dry ice. These two coolers will take up half my trash bin if I were to throw them away.
However, since Williams-Sonoma calls that bastion of liberalism San Francisco its corporate headquarter, it seems appropriate that the firm would include recycling instructions within each of the coolers. I can take them to any UPS Store for recycling.
Too bad the other Styrofoam-type shipping and packaging products that exit my house can't be so easily recycled. I guess there's no profit motive.
And unfortunately ideas that make sense, but have no incentive tend to go nowhere.
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