Redding, California, Awarded Grant to Recycle Foam Polystyrene

Residents and businesses in Redding, California will soon have the opportunity to recycle foam polystyrene, thanks to a $49,000 grant from the Foam Recycling Coalition.

In early 2017, the city plans to accept foam polystyrene protective packaging and foodservice packaging including meat trays, cups, egg cartons and clean take-out food containers at its recycling drop-off area. The city's material recycling facility will phase in collection of these items.

The city's Solid Waste Transfer Station, open to all Shasta County residents, will use the grant money to assist in the purchase of a foam polystyrene densifier. Densifiers compact collected materials into condensed polystyrene bricks that are shipped to end markets and then recycled into new products.

Lynn Dyer, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, which houses the coalition said, "Redding developed a strong proposal demonstrating the city's ability and willingness to capture foam polystyrene. We are pleased to support the expansion of a recycling program that will serve the entire county's population of 177,000 residents."

The addition of the new foam recycling operation will work in conjunction with continuing facility expansion at the Redding-owned material recycling facility. The Redding Solid Waste Utility provides waste and recycling services to over 26,000 households in the city.

"The City of Redding Solid Waste Utility is excited to offer foam recycling to its customers. The ability to recycle this material is a service city residents have been requesting for quite some time. Polystyrene is a useable resource that we are looking forward to diverting from the landfill," said Christina Piles, public works supervisor for the City of Redding.

The $49,000 grant is made possible through contributions to the Foam Recycling Coalition, which focuses exclusively on increased recycling of post-consumer foam polystyrene. Its members include Americas Styrenics; Cascades Canada ULC; CKF Inc.; Chick-fil-A; Commodore; Convermex; Dart Container Corp.; Dolco Packaging, A Tekni-Plex Company; Dyne-A-Pak; Genpak; Hawaii Foam Products; INEOS Styrolution America LLC; NOVA Chemicals Corp.; Pactiv Foodservice/Food Packaging; Shell Chemical LP; and TOTAL Petrochemicals & Refining USA. Additional support of the coalition comes from the EPS Industry Alliance.

The City of Redding follows Athens-Clarke County, Ga. and McLeod County, Minn. as the third grant recipient of 2016. More information about foam recycling and how to apply for a grant is available at www.recyclefoam.org.