New Equipment Improves Foam Polystyrene Recycling for North Carolina City

The city of High Point, North Carolina, received a $50,000 grant from the Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Foam Recycling Coalition (FRC) that enables the city’s 117,000 residents to recycle materials such as foam polystyrene cups, plates, bowls, clamshells, egg cartons and meat trays, as well as block packaging foam.

The FRC grant assisted with funding the purchase and installation of a foam densifier at the High Point Material Recovery Facility (MRF). Densifiers are used to compact foam products into foam blocks or ingots. The city sells the foam ingots to end markets to be manufactured into thermal insulation panels for foundations, walls and roofs.

Residents of High Point, as well as the neighboring communities of Jamestown and Archdale, can take their polystyrene foam to drop-off locations that house drop-off trailers. The locations include Ingleside Compost Facility, High Point Public Library and High Point MRF.

“Residents have already shown a positive response to recycling polystyrene foam,” said Rebecca Coplin, beautification supervisor for the city of High Point. “The two trailers collecting foam with the Tiny House Community Development are replaced once per week, 10-20 drop-offs per week are received at the MRF, and an influx of foam from the High Point Furniture Market is seen twice per year. As we get the word out, we expect an increase in residential drop-off activity that will benefit the recycling of foam and other materials.”

High Point’s public information office will inform residents about the addition of foam polystyrene recycling via communications, including posters, printed materials and the city’s website and social media. The MRF offers tours, information booths and educational programming that will include messaging on recycling polystyrene foam.

“The Foam Recycling Coalition aims to support communities like High Point as they work to increase recycling for residents by adding more materials to the recycling program,” said Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute. “We applaud High Point for taking action to divert valuable materials from the landfill that can be made into new products.”

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.; Dyne-A-Pak; Genpak; INEOS Styrolution America LLC; Lifoam Industries, LLC; Pactiv Evergreen; and Republic Plastics.

High Point is the 31st grant recipient to receive FRC funding since 2015. Over 10 million additional residents in the U.S. and Canada can recycle foam polystyrene because of FRC grants. Visit
www.RecycleFoam.org to learn more about foam recycling, read about previous recipients or apply for a grant.