EPS Recycling Rate

The Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers (AFPR) conducted the 2010 EPS Packaging Recycling Rate study to show the success rate of eps recycling by businesses and consumers across the United States. Below is an excerpt from the report:

"Many are not aware expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging is recyclable – and is being recycled successfully by businesses and consumers across the United States. The 2010 Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Packaging Recycling Rate Study (the “Rate Study”) was conducted by the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers (AFPR). To better track EPS recycling trends AFPR gathers data to reflect both post-commercial and post-residential collection streams. The results reflect a modest increase in the number of postconsumer pounds recycled in 2010 years based on data received from fifty-eight EPS manufacturers and independent recyclers in twenty states.

As reflected in Table 1, more than 71 million pounds of EPS was recycled during calendar year 2010. This figure includes 31.7 million pounds of post-commercial packaging, 5.4 million pounds of post-consumer packaging and 34.2 million pounds of post-industrial recovery. Post-commercial and post-consumer recycling are defined as any material that is recycled after its intended end-use. Post-industrial recovery includes EPS facility scrap that is recycled but never served its intended end-use as a packaging material.

Marking twenty years, EPS recycling has reached some level of maturity demonstrating a stable baseline, incremental growth and steady end-use market developments. Some companies are choosing to promote and support EPS recycling through shared responsibility within the supply chain. Walmart has created a closed-loop EPS recycling strategy that takes the collected material and uses it to create recycled picture frames. Several pharmaceutical companies have implemented pre-paid return shipping recycling programs for EPS biomedical coolers. Through this integrated approach – with everyone doing their part – increased recycling is achievable."

Read the entire 2010 Recycling Rate Report from AFPR.