Styrofoam Densifier Broadens Recycling Program at Tech

Go Green, the sustainability branch within Texas Tech University Housing Services, is increasing its recycling capabilities with the addition of a styrofoam, or polystyrene foam, densifier.

One bag of styrofoam will be turned into a 10 pound block of recyclable material

Melanie Tatum of Lubbock and Jackie Kimbler of Albuquerque, New Mexico, have been partners at Go Green for seven years. As unit managers in Housing Services, they work to increase sustainability on campus.

“In August we bought a foam densifier,” Tatum said. “For the past few years, we noticed that the majority of our trash was either cardboard or styrofoam, and in 2009 we took the cardboard out of the mix, but the styrofoam was still there. So, in 2014 we decided we would try to pull the foam out to see what a difference that made, so we bought the densifier.”

Tatum said the densifier crushes the styrofoam and then super heats it to get the final product. Styrofoam is about 95 percent air, and so the densifier will take a bag of styrofoam that is approximately five feet tall and turn it into a 10-pound block of recyclable material.

Kimbler said the difficulty with recycling styrofoam is a majority of styrofoam on campus is for holding food, so it is too dirty in the end to recycle, or the food and drink containers are still full. To recycle the foam, it needs to be clean and rinsed out.

Julia Pena, a senior public relations major from Austin, Texas, said she worked at Go Green for two years. During her time there, she said she saw the program begin to broaden its recycling efforts.

This ten pound block of recycled styrofoam can be used for insulation in buildings

“Go Green recycles almost everything now,” Pena said. “When I first joined, we recycled bottles, paper, newspaper, anything paper-wise. Aluminum, tin cans, anything that had the recycle symbol, we recycled. Styrofoam recently came in within the last year on campus, which is great because that is a really hard thing to recycle, but now we’ve found somebody to take it, which is great because cups everywhere are styrofoam here and as well as the to-go boxes.”

According to the Sierra Club, an environmental organization, Texas Tech is currently ranked 145 for universities in the country for sustainability as of 2014. Other Big 12 Conference universities on the list include the University of Texas at Austin, ranked at 77, and Texas A&M University, ranked at 98. Iowa State University is ranked 76.

Kimbler and Tatum said they hope to increase sustainability on campus with the foam densifier. Both said they are working to be able to recycle more styrofoam and to let students know, but for now they rely heavily on big events such as residence hall move in to gather the foam. There are many uses for the recycled foam, such as insulation in buildings. West Village has recycled polystyrene foam used for insulation that helped it to gain its LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certification.

“We collected enough foam to fill two football fields about four-inches deep, just from move in.” Tatum said. “Two hundred and seventy-two cubic yards of styrofoam is what we kept out of landfills.”

In an upcoming recycling conference, ‘Go Green’ is showing off the styrofoam densifier with these densified Texas’