There are many foam rollers in gyms and physical therapy centers, which can reduce stiffness and even pain during exercise. Many residents also have this foam roller at home because massage is beneficial to soft tissue and can improve muscle flexibility. These foam rollers are made of expanded polypropylene (EPP), which has high density and is relatively hard, effectively massaging the muscles.

EPP foam is a 100% recyclable material with large-scale practicability. Hence, this EPP foam roller also can be recycled and reused. Discarded or damaged foam rollers can be remade into recycled products like surfboards, child seats, and helmet liners through EPP recycling.

Then, how does EPP recycling turn foam rollers into surfboards and other recycled products?

Preprocessing

Firstly, you need to collect discarded EPP foam rollers and separate EPP foam and other plastic materials. Then, you should check whether there is dirt or other impurities on the surface of the EPP foam and clean it. Clean EPP foam can guarantee the quality of recycled materials in the subsequent foam recycling.

Crushing

The processed EPP foam is required to be crushed and compressed into blocks with high density by the EPP recycling machine. Because EPP is a high-density and hard material, it needs to be reduced in volume before the next step of EPP recycling. Otherwise, the transportation costs and storage fees will be quite high.

GREENMAX EPP recycling machine integrates crushing and compressing functions in one machine, achieving the highly efficient volume reduction effect of 50:1. Given the high density of EPP foam, GREENMAX has upgraded the screw crusher in the crushing bin and motor to ensure a uniform crushing effect. We process some customers’ EPP materials with much higher density through adjusting and upgrading the material, quantity, and angle of crushing knives in the EPP compactor. Additionally, by reducing the screw speed, foam can stay in the crushing bin longer and can be cut more fully, thus achieving a smaller and more uniform crushing effect.

Compressing

The smaller and uniform EPP foam scraps will be pushed into the compaction bin of the EPP recycling machine by the high-speed rotating screw, and will be compressed continuously. GREENMAX EPP compactor Zeus Series is specially developed for EPP recycling, and is a technological upgrade based on ordinary cold-press compactors.

EPP foam scraps are pushed into the heating bin by the screw, where the EPP compactor heat and melt the surface of the foam at a high temperature. The processed EPP foam blocks are cut off automatically by the cutting device. Moreover, this EPP recycling machine is equipped with a length detection disc device, which can monitor and prevent the melting of materials, measure the discharge length, and cooperate with the cutter for cutting.

Granulation and reprocessing

The compressed EPP foam blocks will be fed into the granulator for high-temperature melting, extrusion molding, and cut into uniform recycled EPP particles. These particles can be remixed with new materials and put into the production of various environmentally friendly products, such as surfboards, car bumpers, helmet liners, etc., achieving the circular economy of foam recycling.

If you have any questions about EPP recycling, please leave a message and GREENMAX will answer you.