The Polystyrene Packaging Council (PSPC) has in recent years been very successful in its recycling efforts, with 2014 in particular being a break-through year for the industry as the council reaped the rewards of its recycling initiatives.

One of the leading contributors is three-year-old Cape Town based company New Earth Recycling. Although the team only has two trucks and consists of 17 members, the company recycles between six to seven tons of polystyrene a month.

Noel Ehrenreich, managing director at New Earth Recycling said that most of their polystyrene was collected from furnishers and municipal drop off sites.

Why recycle polystyrene?

For one of the company’s main clients, Tafelberg Furnishers, Ehrenreich said the company found it challenging to provide cost-effective waste management to a company that had large amounts of polystyrene in its waste stream.

“We were forced to turn a problem into an opportunity for ourselves and developed revenue channels to effectively handle the polystyrene,” he said.

Recycling process

Once the polystyrene has been collected, Ehrenreich said that is gets sorted by machine and is either granulated, shredded or milled for use in other production processes.

Greatest challenges

Ehrenreich said that the storage and transportation process was a big challenge due its volume and light weight. Polystyrene constitutes 2% material and 98% air, therefore transportation becomes a drawback as many trips are made to transport ‘air’. “The quicker we convert and reduce the volume the better,” he said.

Building capacity and balancing the supply and demand factors were also “an incredible balancing act” which was worsened by the physical characteristics of the recyclable product, he added.

Most of the polystyrene recycled by the company comes from the packaging, clothing or décor industry. However, “Post-consumer polystyrene used in the food industry is also something which is difficult to process at this stage due to the high levels of food contamination,” Ehrenreich said, and added that the company was working on solutions to increase its capabilities to process post-consumer food packaging.

On a positive note, he said that more people were becoming aware of recycling as the enquiries for polystyrene recycling, from commercial consumers and other waste management companies, was on the rise.

Isowall helps garden centres reduce carbon footprints

Another South African owned company in favour of reducing its carbon footprint is Isowall, a leading panel and polystyrene producer in Africa.

The company is also one of the biggest producers of seedling trays in SA and has committed to promote recycling by assisting nurseries and garden centres, who participate in the Polystyrene Packaging Council’s project to collect seedling trays made from High Impact Polystyrene.

Isowall delivers new, unused seedling trays to gardens and nurseries, and also collects the used trays that have been returned by customers for recycling.

What recycled trays are used as

White seedling trays are made of expanded polystyrene. These are used primarily in building and construction and make up part of a special concrete mixture that produces fire resistant cement. It is also strong and offers excellent insulation, says Jimmy Jacka, spokesperson for Isowall.

Black seedling trays are made of high impact polystyrene. “These are recycled into picture frames and thanks to recent technological advancements, the little bit of sand and soil that is often left behind at the bottom of these trays, no longer pose a problem for recyclers,” Jacka said. “As long as the trays are relatively clean, these trays are in high demand,” he added.

The pilot project was implemented in 2015 with a selected group of nurseries, and since then, great success has been achieved with the scheme, Jacka said.