FOAM RECYCLING COMES TO HIGH POINT

The City of High Point recently received a $49,250 grant from the Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Foam Recycling Coalition (FRC) that will enable residents to recycle materials, such as foam polystyrene cups, plates, bowls, clamshells, egg cartons and meat trays, as well as block packaging foam at its local drop-off centers.

The city currently has three drop-off locations, The High Point Library, Ingleside Compost Facility and the Material Recovery Facility.

The grant money was used for the purchase of a foam densifier from FOAMCYCLE. Densifiers are used to compact polystyrene foam products, like cups, egg cartons, food service containers and packaging materials, into foam blocks or ingots.

The City of High Point plans to sell the foam ingots to local markets to be manufactured into architectural moldings, picture frames foam insulation.

The Foam Recycling Coalition was formed under the Foodservice Packaging Institute in 2014 to support increased recycling of food service packaging made from foam polystyrene.

FRC shares general information on foam recycling, provides technical resources and offers funding assistance to programs ready to start or strengthen post-consumer foam recycling. Members include stakeholders from throughout the food service packaging value chain.

The grant is made possible through contributions to FRC, which focuses exclusively on increased recycling of post-consumer foam polystyrene.