SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): Boxes filled with Styrofoam sit at the Monroe County Waste Authority in Blakeslee. Executive director Mike Stettler says the common packaging material typically just ends up in the trash. "Not being able to recycle it means that we're going to have to landfill it. If you bought a TV or a large appliance or something like that, there goes your garbage can for the week, with all Styrofoam going to the landfill."

The waste authority now has a new way to help keep that Styrofoam from taking up space in a landfill. Stettler says the waste authority received a partial grant for this machine that breaks down the Styrofoam, "It takes the Styrofoam, it chews it up a little bit and then heats it up and takes the oxygen out, and then we make the blocks that you'll see them making over there."

Stettler says it takes about five cubic yards of Styrofoam to form one of the blocks. The broken-down materials can then be sold to different companies that can use them for other items.

"Send it to a place in New Jersey that makes moldings and trim for the cruise ship industry, or there's also a couple other buyers that make it back into polystyrene, or they can also make it into rigid foam insulation for building projects," said Stettler.

Monroe County residents can bring their Styrofoam to the waste authority to be recycled for free; officials say it must be clean, with no tape or other packaging materials on it.

And not all Styrofoam is created equal. "Look for just number six; that's the white, puffy stuff that you can break apart, and you see the little round, air-filled balls of polystyrene to break apart; that's what we're looking for," said Stettler.

Courtesy: www.wnep.com