Polystyrene foam is widely used in the manufacture of disposable coffee cups and a variety of building materials, but its raw materials are often derived from non-renewable energy sources such as petroleum. The resulting polystyrene may produce harmful components and cannot be naturally degraded under high temperature conditions.
Polystyrene also causes environmental pollution when burned. Previously, researchers have tried to use plant fiber as a substitute, but the latter has poor strength and heat insulation, and is easily degraded under high temperature and high humidity conditions.
American researchers have developed an environmentally-friendly botanical material that is superior to polystyrene foam in thermal insulation and is expected to be an alternative to disposable coffee cups and other products in the future.
Washington State University issued a bulletin on the 9th that the environmentally friendly material is mainly composed of plant cellulose nanocrystals, which is simple in manufacturing process and does not require the use of harmful solvents.
While looking forward to the new plant eco-friendly materials, we must also make good use of the existing machine recycling foam technology.Such as GreenMax foam recycling machine.GreenMax foam densifier can handle a wide variety of materials, such us polyfoam/styrofoam/EPS,EPP. The GreenMax styrofoam densifier melts the foam into ingots to achieve EPS recycling.What’s more, the compressed EPS blocks or ingots can be sold to GreenMax for reusing.