EPS Recycling
A Zero-Waste Company on a Mission
Pacific Allied has made it a practice to be a zero-waste company, reprocessing clean scrap material into new products, thereby eliminating much of the waste that would otherwise end up in Oahu’s landfill. Due of the success of its internal recycling program and recognizing a greater need for foam recycling in Hawaii – currently, no other entity in the state has a foam recycling program – Pacific Allied developed a program to collect and recycle as much EPS foam as possible, whether produced locally or imported.
Partnership with Local Companies
Consumers know that many types of plastic can be reused, and EPS is no different. While a product that is 98 percent air can quickly fill garbage cans, dumpsters and valuable landfill space, modern technology makes it possible to recycle EPS efficiently and safely with no harmful emissions.Since beginning its own internal recycling program, Pacific Allied has partnered in joint recycling activities with two local companies that use large amounts of EPS. Servco Home & Appliance Distribution and C.S. Wo each use EPS foam to ensure the safe shipping of their products to Hawaii. Once these products are unpacked, large volumes of foam remain as waste. Recognizing the need to dispose of the foam in an environmentally friendly manner, both companies partnered with Pacific Allied to compact, package and transport this waste.
To be recycled, EPS must first be compacted using high-volume extruder technology. EPS scrap is ground up and heated, dramatically shrinking it to a little over 1 percent of its previous volume. The result is a compact material that can be converted to useful products such as cafeteria trays, video and audio tape bodies and cases, rulers, desktop accessories, picture frames, hangers, plant trays, etc.