You are here

Styrecycle: Expanded polystyrene (EPS) recycling program (In Progress)

Project History

  • 7/19/2021

    Dart Container at 1505 E. Main St., Urbana, accepts expanded polystyrene (EPS), more commonly known by its brand name Styrofoam, for recycling. Departments are encouraged to take EPS there to recycle this bulky material.

  • 10/15/2017

    In July 2017, the vendor with whom the UIUC campus had partnered for EPS recycling was purchased by another vendor that was not able to continue the partnership. Central funding for transporting EPS to drop-off locations ended.

Description

Dart Container at 1505 E. Main St., Urbana, accepts expanded polystyrene (EPS), more commonly known by its brand name Styrofoam, for recycling. Departments are encouraged to take EPS there to recycle this bulky material. By doing so, we can reduce the volume of waste sent from campus to landfills and avoid the harmful environmental impacts of that practice. There is no charge to drop off EPS at Dart for recycling.

There is currently no central funding source to pay for transportion of EPS to Dart, so departments need to arrange transport independently.

The drop-off location is in a fenced-in area of the Dart parking lot and may be accessed 24 hours a day. Dart accepts foam packaging (except for packaging peanuts), foam cups, foam egg cartons, foam meat trays, foam ice chests, and other foam products that fall within these guidelines:

  • Make sure foam has the #6 chasing arrows symbol on it.
  • Deposit foam in a clear or translucent bag (large bags are provided at the drop-off site).
  • Rinse or wipe foodservice containers free from food.
  • Remove straws, lids, tape or any other non-foam material.
  • Do not include foam-packaging peanuts.

From fall 2015 until summer 2017, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) ran the Styrecycle program in partnership with Community Resource Inc. (CRI). Ownership of CRI changed in July 2017, and the new owner was not able to continue the program.

No description has been provided yet.

Project Team

  • Primary Contact:

    Morgan White

    Team Members:

    • Achint Sharma
    • Marco Tijoe
    • Aaron Gadtula
    • Colin Tirakian
    • Ray Bizit
    • Olivia Harris

    Prior Contacts:

    • Maddy Liberman

Dates

  • Proposed March 16, 2014
    Proposed by Ben McCall

Themes

Project Location(s)

This map is interactive! Click (or touch) and drag to pan; scroll (or pinch) to zoom.

View larger location(s) map