First Recycling Grant Winner Announced

The Foodservice Packaging Institute has announced the first recipient of their foam recycling grant program, Alpine Waste & Recycling of Commerce City, Colorado. The grant program was intended to support communities that needed assistance purchasing equipment to recycle polystyrene. 

“Out of the dozens of applications from the U.S. and Canada, we were particularly impressed with Alpine’s thoughtfulness and plans for the future,” said Lynn Dyer, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, which houses the coalition. “Alpine recognized the value and benefit of adding polystyrene foam to their already successful recycling program.” 

The grant will help the company purchase a foam densifier allowing them to compress recycled polystyrene down to a smaller size, making more efficiently recycled. Densifiers turn loose foam into blocks of polystyrene that is then sold to companies that use it to create new products like building materials and picture frames. 

Foam recycling is a growing industry throughout the United States and the world. In 2013, the EPS-IA reported that there was a 34% increase in foam recycling over the previous year. These grants will help support more communities that are interested in recycling foam.

The grant is made possible through contributions to the Foam Recycling Coalition, which focuses exclusively on increased recycling of post-consumer polystyrene foam. Its members include Americas Styrenics; Cascades Canada ULC; CKF Inc.; Chick-fil-A; Commodore; Convermex; D&W Fine Pack; Dart Container Corp.; Dolco Packaging, A Tekni-Plex Company; Dyne-A-Pak; Genpak; Hawaii Foam Products; NOVA Chemicals Corp.; Pactiv Foodservice/Food Packaging; Shell Chemical LP; Styrolution America; and TOTAL Petrochemicals & Refining USA. Additional support of the coalition comes from the EPS Industry Alliance. 

The coalition will continue to offer grants that promote foam recycling in residential curbside, drop-off and commercial programs. Additional grant recipients will be announced later this spring.

More information about foam recycling.