- Closeup of polystyrene. By Crispin Semmens, reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
You know that white, lightweight, molded polystyrene foam that so many electronics (especially computers) comes packaged in? It’s huge, making it expensive to throw out, and your recycling center never accepts it. It’s a pain in the ass. But the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers has a guide to recycling it and, as it turns out, there are a few places in Virginia that will accept it:
- Mid Atlantic Foam, Fredericksburg 540-376-1800
- RADVA Corporation, Radford 540-731-3700
- Carpenter Company, Richmond 804-359-0800
They recommend that you call ahead to find out the location and the times that they accept drop-offs. There’s no way that I’m driving to Richmond or Fredericksburg to recycle polystyrene, but those of y’all that already live in one of these places might find this handy.
There are a few local pack-n-ship places that will take molded styrofoam for reuse, and almost all of them will accept packing peanuts (if you’re unfortunate enough to receive those).
Also, don’t know if this is still the case, but Greene County used to accept #6 plastics at their recycling center a couple years back. Learned this from one of the Planet Earth Diversified dudes at City Market when I griped to him that I had no way to recycle the containers in which they package that delicious baby arugula.
That’s a great tip. Man, I hate those packing peanuts. Some years ago I received a shipment of several computers at the design firm that I worked at. Having heard that the packing peanuts were now made out of cornstarch, which would dissolve in water, I confidently dumped a boxful into the toilet, demonstrating to my coworkers what a genius I was.
Ten minutes later, as I scooped polystyrene peanuts out of the toilet, my status as a supragenius was confirmed.