• Styrofoam is a common packing material.background styrofoam peanut image by robert mobley from Fotolia.com
  
  Styrofoam is a trademarked name that has become commonly used for any polystyrene foam product. The substance is often used in packing and insulation and to make disposable products such as plates and cups. There are not facilities for recycling Styrofoam in all cities or areas, but consumers and businesses can look for a polystyrene recycling facility near them at earth911.com.
  
  

Keeps Styrofoam Out of Landfills

• Recycling Styrofoam is beneficial because it keeps the product out of landfills. Styrofoam can come in large pieces, and even small items, like cups, build up significantly. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans dispose of 25 billion Styrofoam cups annually. The material polystyrene does not break down in landfills for an extremely long time, and will still be there hundreds of years after being discarded. Styrofoam that has been disposed of is sometimes ingested by animals and birds, and can damage their digestive tract, causing death. Styrofoam can also end up outside of landfills, causing water contamination and becoming floating ocean debris.
  
  

Reduces Manufacturing of New Styrofoam

• When Styrofoam is recycled, it is made into a new Styrofoam or polystyrene foam product. The process of creating new Styrofoam from old Styrofoam decreases the need for the material to be made from scratch. Manufacturing new Styrofoam requires petroleum, a non-renewable resource, and benzene, a human carcinogen. The correlation between recycling and producing is even, according to BLAST!, Business Leaders in Action for Sustainability Today. That means that if 10 percent of Styrofoam is recycled, about 10 percent less is manufactured new.
  
  

Enables Creative Uses at Home

• Styrofoam products can be recycled at home, and re-purposed for other uses. Some people use Styrofoam in craft projects because it is durable and long-lasting. Another home use is for packing fragile materials for moving, storage or shipping. Rather than buying a bag of packing peanuts made of Styrofoam, old pieces can be cut up and reused. A citrus-peel extract called limonene causes Styrofoam to shrink and become a sticky substance that can be used as glue. Limonene can be difficult to find in stores, but is available at www.greenterpene.com.
  
  

Avoids Burning Styrofoam

• Recycling Styrofoam assures that the material will not be burned during disposal. Burning Styrofoam releases a human carcinogen, benzene, which is used in the production of the product. Some people burn Styrofoam plates and cups while camping or in a home burning barrel with the intention of avoiding the landfill, but the result is toxic and hazardous to humans and the environment.