Polystyrene is one of the most commonly used packaging materials relied upon by shops owners and restauranteurs to keep their food or beverages hot or cold, as well as by retailers to protect high value items such as televisions or refrigerators owing to the material’s excellent insulation properties.
With the development of e-commerce, this kind of single-used packaging material is popular in the takeout industry. Especially for office workers, this kind of food containers are easy to carry, it can keep the hot food hot, and the most important thing is that it can be thrown away directly after use, without cleaning.
Polystyrene is also widely used by supermarkets to transport and pack their perishable food products such as meat, fruit and vegetables owing to the fact that polystyrene offers excellent insulation properties, extends the shelf life of food and protects items against breakage.
The wonderful thing about polystyrene is that the material consists of 96% air – making it incredibly lightweight. This has a significant impact on carbon emissions during transportation, but also unfortunately causes it to be easily blown away by wind where it becomes visible litter found on beaches or along roadsides. Furthermore, after the material being used, polystyrene disposal is really a problem, the large volume makes it difficult to transport and recycle. And, some recyclers even don’t accept something like food containers due to the dirty surface. That’s really unfortunate news.
Many companies start to think about applying effective polystyrene recycling machines, not only the manufactures, but also the supermarkets, furniture companies and retail companies. McArthur Furniture, a famous chain furniture store in Canada, is one of these companies. It has adopted a GREENMAX APOLO C200 four years ago. And until now, 200000lbs polystyrene waste has been recycled through this polystyrene compactor, which has largely contributed to the local environmental protection and brought great profits to the company.
“We are very excited to apply this kind of machine that will not only divert a valuable item away from landfill, but also help to create jobs and support a growing industry.” said the manager.