This machine is densifying Styrofoam. It grinds up Styrofoam that was used to package and ship many of the products we buy. Then it squeezes the particles into tighter, denser blocks to facilitate shipping.
"If you took a truckload of loose Styrofoam, it weighs about 200 pounds, and it fills a whole semi-tractor trailer load but densified [you can ship] 30,000 to 40,000 pounds," said Madison County Recycling coordinator Mary Bartlett.
She says Styrofoam is going for $.18 to $.20 a pound, which would be about $8,000 a truckload.
Styrofoam recyclers take the densified Styrofoam melt it down and form it into things like picture frames and molding.
Work Crew Leader PJ Will and his crew inspect and feed the right kind of Styrofoam into the machine. It goes through a grinder.
"From there it goes to an auger that pushes it into a chamber here. Then a hydraulic cam pushes it forward while another cam, pushes it down to condense the material," said Will.
But successfully producing a saleable product depends on densifying only the right Styrofoam.
"It’s BPS #6. There are all different types like polypropylene. It looks almost exactly the same," said Bartlett.
Egg cartons are a good example of packaging that looks like it fits the bill but it doesn’t and it’s thrown away.
Even factoring out packaging that has to be landfilled, there’s no shortage of the right Styrofoam.
"We have so much Styrofoam, we’re having trouble storing it right now," said Bartlett.