Styrofoam and recycling

One of the elements of new equipment (and indeed just about any boxed product) that I hate is the amount of packing and padding that goes into the product. Most of that, especially with computer and IT items is Polystyrene Foam, or Styrofoam.

It's a very good packing component, but has problems when you want to get rid of it, because it isn't biodegradable or easily recyclable (most current recycling methods rely on using comparatively toxic chemicals, which complicates the process, and reduces the effectiveness of recycling in the first place). Even when it is possible, most companies and goverment agencies concentrate on the relatively easy recycling of plastic, glass and paper/cardboard.

At a time when companies are expected to better recycle their PCs (as supported by companies like Dell or HP), recycling the packing they are contained in sounds like a good idea.

The methods of recycling styrofoam are obviously the problem, so it is good to hear that there is Finally Something To Do With All That Styrofoam (at Treehugger). The article describes a method for digesting the foam with bacteria that turn the foam into a bio-degradable plastic.

When you consider the weight of styrofoam, and how much in the US is dumped each year (from the article "2.3 million tons of polystyrene foam (styrofoam) are dumped in US landfills each year") you can just imagine how much styrofoam that really means. Recycling it into a biodegradable substance will go a long way to solving the problem.