THE CHALLENGE...
What to do with 10 million pounds of abandoned plastic & styrofoam?
In a 150,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Romeoville, IL sits 10 million pounds of recycled plastic and styrofoam. Originally these materials were meant to be exported to China but now have no place to go. Placing the materials in a landfill would be the easy option, but V2 Solutions, Inc. and Cardinal Recycling Co. have other ideas.
USA TODAY article by David Carrig - Published 3:51 p.m. ET June 21, 2018
"The US used to ship 4,000 recyclable containers a day to China.
Where will the banned trash go now?"
An estimated 111 million metric tons of plastic waste will be displaced by 2030 as a result of China’s recent ban on the import of most plastic waste, according to new research.
That decision means the U.S. and other industrialized countries that have been exporting their plastic waste to China for recycling will need to find new ways to handle the disposal of their trash as much of it is already starting to pile up in landfills.
"Bold global ideas and actions for reducing quantities of non-recyclable materials, redesigning products, and funding domestic plastic waste management are needed," the authors of the study wrote in the journal Science Advances....
THE DEADLINE...
V2 Solutions, Inc. was contracted to remove and source the 10 million pounds of recycled plastics and styrofoam by September 24th.
(Recycled plastic or "PET", which stands for polyethylene terephthalate, is a plastic resin and a form of polyester.)
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An estimated 300 semi-trailer truck loads will be required to remove the materials from the warehouse site.
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Andre van Vuren and his team from V2 Solutions, Inc. along with consultant, Mike Reinert from Cardinal Recycling Co., are too environmentally focused to simply landfill this material.
WAIT...WHAT ABOUT THE STYROFOAM?...
V2 has a solution for that as well!
What's a Mobile Styrofoam Densifying Machine?
Large quantities of EPS [Expanded Polystyrene] is present in the warehouse. This is a unique material although it is extremely Green as far as EPS Insulation is composed of organic elements – carbon, hydrogen and oxygen – and does not contain chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), but it does not degrade over time, is unaffected by moisture and is non-toxic. It will stay in our landfills forever.
In its finished form EPS is made up of 98% air, leaving 2% as crude oil derived plastic.
With 80 – 100 Semi-tractor-trailer loads to dispose of V2 Solutions Inc. and Cardinal Recycling Co. had to be creative. With US companies capacities strained due to the influx of product they looked to Canada.
A company started in 2016 that has mobile densifying units is under contract to send 2 mobile units to this project to process the EPS. The process of thermal densification involves breaking up and melting Styrofoam inside a controlled-temperature chamber. The temperature is controlled to allow the Styrofoam to melt without burning. This collapses the expanded foam cells, enabling it then to be recycled into other products.
Watch the process video below.
