Polystyrene recycling is now available in Palmy
Published on 22 July 2024
You don’t need to cram bulky polystyrene into your rubbish any longer. And if you’ve been storing it in your shed while waiting for a solution – now’s the time to load up the car!
A new drop-off point for all clean household polystyrene is now available at our Ferguson Street Recycling Centre. Once it's dropped off, it'll be recycled into picture frames and decorative mouldings.
Group Manager of Resource Recovery, Bryce Hosking, says this new service will likely be a big hit.
"Last year we asked residents if they needed a service like this, and the overwhelming response was 'Yes!' A lot of people are sick of cramming bulky polystyrene into their rubbish bins and bags, so we're pleased to be introducing this new service for Palmy."
Because polystyrene is lightweight, bulky, and difficult to clean, it's a costly material to recycle at an efficient scale; hence why we’ve been investigating this for a while.
The polystyrene will be compacted by a hot melt densifier machine before being recycled into new products.
Mr Hosking notes that its limited to households only.
"This service is for all Palmy residents, but not for commercial purposes. Our recycler, E-Cycle, intends to extend this service to commercial customers, so if you're interested, please get in touch with them directly.”
To recycle 100 grams worth of polystyrene, it’ll be 70 cents. For the polystyrene that comes with an average inkjet printer, this will be just over $3.
“Instead of covering the costs to provide this service in your rates, we’ve gone with a user pays option, like our other recycling options, as some households don’t go through any polystyrene at all. This was one of the areas of feedback we received last year.
“We’re committed to being an eco-city and our Waste Management and Minimisation Plan has a goal of increasing the proportion of waste diverted from landfill from 38% to 48% by 2025. We can’t do this alone, so enabling our residents to recycle more items is crucial in helping achieve our targets.”