What is PS?

Polystyrene, abbreviated as PS, is a versatile and widely-used plastic polymer known for its unique properties. It falls under the category of thermoplastic polymers, which means it can be melted and reformed multiple times without undergoing significant degradation.

PS plastic can be found in two main types of polystyrene: expandable polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS).
• EPS, commonly recognized as Styrofoam, is characterized by its cellular structure, making it an excellent choice for packaging, insulation, and disposable food containers. It provides exceptional thermal insulation and cushioning, making it a staple in the packaging industry.

• XPS, on the other hand, boasts a more uniform, dense structure, lending itself to applications such as thermal insulation in construction, as well as packaging for delicate items. Its water resistance and durability make it an optimal choice for applications requiring prolonged exposure to moisture.

Features:

1) Lightweight: PS foam material has a low density and is therefore very lightweight and easy to handle and install.

2) Thermal insulation performance: it has good thermal insulation performance and can effectively prevent the transfer of heat.

3) Sound absorption: sound absorption can reduce the spread of noise.

4) Water resistance: can be used in humid environments.

5) Processing performance: easy to process and can be processed by cutting, bonding, spraying and other ways.

6) Environmental protection: can be recycled and is environmentally friendly.

Where Can Find PS Foam

PS foam has a wide range of applications in life, often used in logistics, construction, furniture, food and other industries:

1) Packaging materials: PS foam is often used to pack fragile items, such as electronic products, household appliances, etc., and can be found in electronics stores, supermarkets, etc.

2) Fishing packing: Because EPS has good water resistance, it can be applied in relatively humid environments, so many countries and regions where fisheries are developed have been widely used.

3) Building materials: PS foam is also used for building insulation, sound insulation, etc., and can be found in the PS board manufactures and construction industry.

4) Furniture: PS foam is also used in furniture manufacturing, such as sofas, chairs, etc., and can be found in furniture stores, and also it can be used as packing for furniture.

5) Agricultural and floral packaging: PS foam can be used in floral packaging and is already used as a produce box to provide protection and support.

Way to recycle Waste PS Foam

For most producers, manufacture and converter, fishers and other industries that produce and use PS materials, the PS foam waste is inevitably generated during operation. These foam waste can take up a lot of warehouse space and can cause fire and other hazards if not handled in time.

The common way to deal with the PS waste:

 Taken care by recycler or waste management company: Usually many will choose some recyclers and WM company to take away their offcuts and waste with handling charges. While in most areas the cost of handling of PS foam waste is very high, and there is no guarantee to come and pick up the waste regularly. And landfill method costs labour, occupies land and produces no benefit.

 Used as fuel for incineration: Although this method can generate heat, but need huge investment for equipment.

 Recycle and reuse after crushing: it is used as an additive material to make lightweight insulation building materials, such as EPS lightweight concrete, cement polystyrene board, EPS foam hollow brick and EPS lightweight roof insulation board, etc., which is characterized by making full use of the excellent insulation properties of EPS foam.

 Using PS foam compactor: reduce the volume and save freight cost and sell to the downstream buyers. A compactor or densifier can deal with a large amount of waste, which can realize recycling and achieve the real control of EPS pollution to the environment.

 Through granulation equipment, through hot melt regeneration granulation, the PS waste is regenerated into PS granules. Then it can also be heated and fused to add foaming agents, flame retardants, nucleating agents and other additives, and XPS is prepared by processing, which is widely used in building materials. So that the PS recycling truly becomes a closed-loop process.

How to Increase the Value of the Recycled PS foam

We've talked about six common ways to recycle PS foam, but there are usually two that create extra value: selling compressed PS briquettes or recycled PS blocks/ingots remade into R-PS pellets.

 Generally speaking, the price for PS ingot and PS block are different, because ingots have a higher density. The same 40HQ container can hold 18-22 tons of PS ingots, so the price of ingots is slightly higher than blocks.

 Second, the cleanliness of PS foam will also determine its price, generally speaking, the cleaner the price of PS waste will be higher, containing sediment, tape, labels and other impurities of PS prices will be greatly reduced, so before the compression of PS foam need to deal with the impurities, to ensure the purity of PS foam; PS foam boxes like fish boxes also need to pour bleeding water, but do not need to be cleaned

What GREENMAX Can Offer

GREENMAX as the largest end user of EPS, purchasing about 6000tons of compacted EPS materials monthly from the world to produce framing products which is sold in Zara home, Walmart....

GREENMAX is familiar with

 PS waste features;

 PS recycling machine function and performance;

 PS pelletizing solution;

 The whole recycling industry chain of PS recovery and reusing;

Solution 1: PS foam shredding and filling

PHASE 1 Mill completes the shredding of the waste material

The EPS scrap is fed into the shredder of the EPS recycling system to obtain EPS scrap. The material obtained in this step contains reusable and non-reusable EPS beads which are mixed and separated in a subsequent screening operation.

PHASE 2 dust collector completes the bead sieving operation

After mixing, the EPS beads are sorted by the dust extraction unit of the EPS recycling system. This unit is equipped with a special screen for sorting the pearls.

After screening, the reusable EPS beads are separated more precisely from the non-reusable beads. The reusable beads are introduced into the mixer and the final bin, while the non-reusable beads are collected in the collection unit and are not involved in further handling processes.

PHASE 3 Mixing of new and recycled materials

After the screening process, the reusable EPS beads enter the Final Silo, which is located at the end of the EPS recycling system and is divided into two parts, one for the recycled EPS beads we obtain and the other for the new EPS material, which is mixed with the recycled pearls.

Solution 2: PS foam volume reduction

GREENMAX Heracles Series Hydraulic Compactor is an EPS recycling machine specialized in compressing waste EPS packaging into blocks by hydraulic pressure without heating.

Equipped with high-efficient automatic hydraulic system, the waste EPS can be crushed in the storage bin of the GREENMAX Heracles Series EPS Compactor and then compacted into dense and uniform blocks with a volume reduction ratio of 70:1, greatly reducing the volume of waste EPS, therefore saving storage and transportation costs. In particular, Heracles Series Hydraulic Compactor has the benefits both the energy saving of our Apollo Series Cold Screw Compactor and the high density of our Mars Series Melting Machine.

Solution 3: PS foam granulating line

The EPS foam granulating line is mainly used for the recycling, processing, and reuse of EPS foam. After simple processing by the waste EPS foam granulation machine, it can be reused PS recycled pellets.

GREENMAX EPS foam granulator machine can achieve an output of 250kg per hour. The equipment includes feeding system, extrusion system, vacuum exhaust system, filtration system, cutting system, and dry packaging system. The EPS foam granulator machine has the advantages of high output, low energy consumption, and good performance after waste recycling. All electrical standards meet CE standards, and the recycling process adopts the latest recycling technology.

For more information and detailed datasheet and information please contact GREENMAX