Week 3 Challenge - Foam Meat Trays

Next to glitter, which clearly tops the chart, Styrofoam must be one of the worst items to clean up around the house. As soon as a block of it gets bumped or dented, those teeny, tiny little particles start breaking loose, getting everywhere and sticking to everything. Thanks, static electricity!

If you think it’s bad around your house, imagine what it would be like to pick those bits off of plastic containers, newspaper, and other materials in a whole community’s worth of recycling bins! Today’s recycling sorting technology is pretty high-tech, but separating out Styrofoam fragments from other materials in your curbside cart is a tall order. That’s why Styrofoam can’t go in your curbside recycling cart.

It CAN be recycled, though, with a little help from you! Your #OneChangePerWeek challenge this week: Foam meat trays (also used for seafood or other fresh items at the grocery store). Remove food residue and liquid-absorbing pads, give them a wipe to clean off any leftover residue, then take them to Do Your Part for recycling. White and coloured foam should be separated into the marked bins onsite.

Hot tip: Keep a tote bin in a garage or closet to store Styrofoam—and any other items destined for Do Your Part, like glass and soft plastics—until you have enough to make a trip. Combine this with a stop at the Bottle Depot to return refundable containers, and you’ve made the journey an efficient one.

What happens to foam after you drop it off? It gets compressed to squeeze out the air and densify it, therefore reducing shipping costs to recyclers. The blocks may then be manufactured into commercial products such as decorative mouldings and picture frames. Nice!

recycle@terrace.ca | 250-615-4019