Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> "Bryan" > wrote
>>> I bet they are the best. but for that kind of money, I can buy a
>>> lot of foam
>>> coolers and after a dozen trips, put them in the recycle bin.
>>
>> Styrofoam doesn't recycle.
>>
>> --Bryan
>
> Yes, it does. Look for the #6 in the recycle logo on many foam
> coolers. My company recycles it every day. We take it from both consumers
> and
> industry. It is 100% recyclable. Want a picture of the setup we
> have? It was about $75,000 ten years ago when we put it in. The
> used foam is ground and blown into a storage bag. It is then blended
> with virgin material for molding into new items.
>
> Oh, the coolers are not Styrofoam either. Styrofoam is the registered
> trademark of the blue extruded EPS board made by Dow Chemical while
> coolers are made from molded food grade expandable polystyrene.
>
> Another method of recycling EPS is to densify it. It is compressed
> to about 30 pounds per cubic foot and sent to plastics processing
> plants that use the styrene as an ingredient in either blends or pure
> general purpose styrene molding grades.
>
> http://www.epspackaging.org/
> http://www.plasticsindustry.org/Abou...temNumber=1125
>
> http://www.epspackaging.org/index.ph...=10&It emid=7
> .The 2008 EPS Recycling Rate Report shows that over 69 million pounds
> of EPS were recycled, including 34.6 million pounds of post-consumer
> packaging and 35.8 million pounds of post-industrial packaging.
> .In 2008, more than 50% of all EPS collected for recycling was used
> to make recycled-content packaging.
> .In 2008, more than 50% of all EPS collected for recycling was used
> to make recycled-content packaging.
> .EPS is made of 98% air and is an inert material without harmful
> chemicals that off-gas or leach during its use of disposal.
> .EPS represents less than 1% of the solid waste stream by weight.

I didn't know you could recycle that stuff. I got it once when I ordered
those stuff from Omaha Steaks. Got another one when I ordered a
Thanksgiving meal. I got a lot of use out of those two. That year,
daughter and I did some lapidary and we used the coolers as work tables. If
I nicked it or spilled some glue on it, it didn't matter.

More recently I have gotten some with chocolate in them. But I broke them
up and threw them out. Next time I will recycle them.