Hardcore recyclers have had a problem with plastic foam products in Greensboro because they are not part of the Greensboro recycling program and reportedly the closest plastic foam product recycling facility was in Randleman.
Now there is a solution. It’s not as easy as stuffing the plastic foam products into the big brown city recycling bin, but it is better than piling it up in the garage instead of sending it to the landfill.
People as well as businesses that don’t want to see their plastic foam products sit in a landfill virtually forever can take that foam to the Tiny House Community Development facility at 1310 W. Gate City Blvd. for recycling.
Clean and dry #6 foam packaging and food service products can be dropped off in the recycling containers behind the Tiny House office. Foam packing peanuts are not accepted.
The foam collected by Tiny House will be shipped to New Jersey where it will be made primarily into picture frames and molding. Proceeds from the sale of the foam will go back to support Tiny House Community Development to help reduce homelessness in the area.
The foam recycling program is truly a community project made possible with support from Greensboro Beautiful, Environmental Stewardship Greensboro, Emerging Ecology, FoamCycle, a Foam Packaging Institute Recycling Grant and private donations.
The Tiny House Community Development office at 1310 W. Gate City Blvd. is half a block from the UNCG police station and across the street from the UNCG Leonard Kaplan Center for Wellness.
For those trying to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills, recycling Styrofoam is a big deal. According to Greencitizen, it’s estimated that foam can take up as much as 30 percent of the space in US landfills. For instance, Americans throw away an estimated 25 billion foam cups every year.
Even those in the foam recycling business were surprised as just how much foam retail stores produce in a week.
“Proceeds from the sale of the foam will go back to support Tiny House Community Development to help reduce homelessness in the area.”
If it has to be shipped several hundred miles to be made into something as mundane as picture frames, how much money can there be in it? Is this just another case of feel good activity that doesn’t actually accomplish anything?
Wayne,
The reason we are surrounded by plastic and consume it in every which way is because it is a multi billion dollar industry. So is the recycling industry, over 38 billion to be precise. Despite generating income for business, we are saving landfills, creating jobs, saving the earth, and most importantly, saving you.
Any form of recycling is saving us from the trash crisis. Landfills are closing down at exponential rates and we are the only ones to blame. They save we have 18 years… Ill be 39 wbu wayne?
Where are you going to be when we run out of room to throw our trash away?
Jena