Many Styrofoam products are too lightweight for the sorting machines during the recycling process and because recycling is calculated by weight, the lightweight nature of Styrofoam has a low return and high transportation costs. Therefore, it is not feasible to recycle it at this time when the energy it takes to recycle it costs more.
What's the best option for managing my Styrofoam?
Reduce
The City is moving away from Styrofoam throughout the organization, including events, and encourages all citizens to avoid Styrofoam when possible. This can be as easy as using reuseable dishware rather than disposable dishware to save energy and resources when hosting an event.
Reuse
Keep any Styrofoam you collect for the next time you are shipping something fragile or get creative and research reuse ideas shared on online.
Recycle
Some large chain stores will recycle Styrofoam that came as packaging in a product that has been purchased at their store. Check with your retailer to see if they have any recycling programs in place for Styrofoam and other packaging materials.
Dispose
Please put Styrofoam into a garbage bag and into your black cart as garbage, even if it's marked with the recycling symbol.
