The future looks different for polystyrene packaging
Posted February 14, 2013 10:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s used for takeout food containers, in beverage cups, and for electronic and toy packaging. The mayor of New York has announced he wants it banned.
Changes coming to BC’s recycling system could mean polystyrene will not be the menace in BC landfills that it has been up to now.
That’s because next year, companies in BC will be expected to recycle all the packaging that comes with their products.
Brock MacDonald with the Recycling Council of BC believes restaurants, for example, will think twice about putting takeout food in the plastic foam.
“Through that economic imperative, they will be responsible and look at the business model and make some different choices,” he notes.
And he says much more of the plastic foam will get recycled.
“If it’s cleaned properly, you can compress it and it can be recycled and used for other things.”
He points out local recyclers can sell polystyrene (which is often referred to as Styrofoam, the trademarked name of a Dow Chemical product) on the international commodity market.
Polystyrene has a bad reputation, because it takes hundreds of years to break down, and animals mistake it for food and die from choking.
