Every year on Nov. 15, the University of Kentucky will celebrate American Recycles Day and call on its staff and students to recycle some waste on campus for reusing. In the past year, they had created an over-surprising cardboard paper board exhibition. This year, Kentucky has created another excellent recycling display— “wave”, which is made of Styrofoam waste.



Why this year did they choose Styrofoam as the theme of this year’s recycling target?
Styrofoam has been taken for disposable material, so it usually ends in trash bins. However, this unimpressive material has caused a great influence on our life and the environment. Esther Moberly, UK waste recycling and transport manager, says that when Styrofoam is not handled properly (such as in landfills), it will break down into smaller pieces and form into microfoam that is almost impossible to remove from waterways and hard to discern with the naked eye. It ends up in animals and even people. Even if all Styrofoam is sent to a landfill or incinerated, the process releases a lot of CO2 and toxic pollution. Inhaling these pollutants can cause health risks. These are just some of the bad results. But all these bad effects are based on using Styrofoam only as a disposable item. Recycling Styrofoam will not cause these problems.
In keeping with the theme of recycling and calling people to recycle Styrofoam, Kentucky has launched a campus Styrofoam recycling project which allows Styrofoam coolers and molded Styrofoam packaging. Now the University of Kentucky Recycling is working with the Office of Sustainability to improve Recycling rates as well as Recycling rates on campuses and hopes to reach 50% by the end of 2022. 



So where will the Styrofoam recycled on campus be sent? This requires us to have a further understanding of Styrofoam. In the past, many recycling centers did not accept Styrofoam waste. But now with more campaigns and publicity like UK Recycling, more recycling centers, and recycling stations are accepting Styrofoam waste. Through some Styrofoam recycling machines, waste Styrofoam will be cut into small pieces and melted into ingots. Compared with the original form, Styrofoam ingots are easier to transport to the recycling plant and process into new products. These products include photo frames, household decoration, benches…



The global volume of Styrofoam waste continues to grow, and some of the biggest producers don’t manage their waste effectively. Faced with the continuous increase in the number of Styrofoam waste around the world, even the campus began to make efforts for Styrofoam recycling, but some big manufacturers failed to effectively manage their Styrofoam. Don’t hesitate now, INTCO Recycling will cooperate with you to solve all problems of Styrofoam recycling.