Expandable polystyrene are ubiquitous in modern life, finding applications from protecting your newly purchased television to disposable plates and cups. It is composed of 98% air, making it very bulky compared to its weight and filling dumpsters quickly – leading to high disposal fees. Also, due to the low cost of manufacturing, rate of recycling of this material is low. Now, a recycling company in China has turned this waste into resource by turning discarded polystyrene into synthetic wood. Read more

From LinkedIn Think Green, Daniel Wang:

How to Reduce “Waste” Costs and profit by recycling Styrofoam!

Expandable polystyrene (EPS) and other foam plastics are 98% air making them very bulky in comparison to their weight. The high volume fills dumpsters quickly, leading to higher waste disposal costs. Foam Compactors reduce the volume of expanded foam products, and in turn, less fees are incurred through reduction. Also a benefit, compacted foam products can be shipped economically to a recycling location. Compacting foam plastics can save thousands in unnecessary waste costs!

Polystyrene, abbreviated following ISO Standard PS, is an aromatic polymer made from the aromatic monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry. Polystyrene is one of the most widely used kinds of plastic.

Polystyrene is a thermoplastic substance, which is in solid (glassy) state at room temperature, but flows if heated above its glass transition temperature (for moulding or extrusion), and becomes solid again when cooled. Pure solid polystyrene is a colourless, hard plastic with limited flexibility. It can be cast into moulds with fine detail. Polystyrene can be transparent or can be made to take on various colours.

Solid polystyrene is used, for example, in disposable cutlery, plastic models, CD and DVD cases, and smoke detector housings. Products made from foamed polystyrene are nearly ubiquitous, for example packing materials, insulation, and foam drink cups.

Polystyrene can be recycled, and has the number “6″ as its recycling symbol although the low cost of virgin polystyrene keeps recycling rates low. No known microorganism has yet been shown to biodegrade polystyrene, and it is often abundant as a form of pollution in the outdoor environment, particularly along shores and waterways especially in its low density cellular form.

Chinese company Intco Framing is committed to promote the life philosophy of environment protection, health and safety.

“We recycle 50,000 tons of waste polystyrene foam every year with advanced recycle and plastic regenerate technique”.

Intco Environmental Framing reuse resource, produce Hi-tech wood-like decoration moulding and successfully replacing the wood with recycled plastic while transfer waste into treasure. 1 million cartons of moulding can be produced every year with the recycled waste polystyrene foam, which means 2 million trees are protected.

Various sizes and designs of photo frame, framed art, mirror frame, base moulding, crown moulding and outdoor floor are produced. Intco has been collecting, recycling and reusing of EPS waste foam for over 10 years. All these waste materials are successfully reused to produce polystyrene moulding and framing products, such as photo frame, picture frame, mirror frame, skirting moulding, crown moulding and outdoor flooring. Based on the uniqueness of the wood-like looking and the competitive cost, it is growing to be a best replacement material of traditional wood moulding and frame, widely applied and welcomed in home decoration industry of the worldwide.

Since Intco Recycling Resources came to China, it has been committed to promoting environmental protection, health and safety concept of life. Every year, Intco collect, recycle and reuse huge amount of EPS foam waste and successfully make them into PS moulding by its advanced equipment and technology, which equals to saving lots of trees a year. The innovation and the concept of transforming the “White Pollution” into wall decor products have been awarded by many national government and environmental associations in China.

Intco Recycling Resources has four manufacturing bases and one trading company:

Zibo factory, established in 2005, located on NO.18, Qingtian Road of Qi Lu Industrial Park, Linzi District, Zibo City of Shandong Province.It covers an area of 158 Mu, including the 50,000㎡ Workshop, 6,000㎡ Office and Exhibition Hall, 2,000㎡ Dining Hall and 10,000㎡Employee Dormitory, It is the major production base for PS moulding and framing products.

Shanghai factory, established in 2002, located in No.1299, Hu Qiao Industries Park of Fengxian District, Shanghai. It covers the area of 35mu.It is the 2nd production base for PS moulding and framing products.

Lu’an factory, established in 2010, located in Lu’an City, Anhui Province. It covers an area of 99 Mu. It is specialized in production of PS moulding for China domestic market.

Zhenjiang factory, established in 2010, located in Da Gang City, Zhenjiang New District, Jiangsu province. It is engaged in the R&D, production and sales of compacting and recycling machinery.

Intco International (HK) Co., limited was registered in HK in 2010. It is the wholly owned subsidiary of Shandong Intco Recycling Resources Co., Ltd., and focuses on the import and export trade of company’s products.

Currently four factories totally carry over 100 PS extrusion lines and over 40 assembly lines with yearly capacity of collecting, recycling and reusing about 50000 tons of EPS waste foam and 1 million boxes of PS moulding, exporting and domestic selling over 5000 containers of PS framing products to over 80 countries and areas.

Source: www.intco.cn