Pilot project to show how much Styrofoam can be diverted from city landfills

Calgarians will soon have another product to keep out of their black cart if they want to help prolong the lifecycle of the city's landfills.

Starting May 13, the city will collect Styrofoam materials at the recycling areas of its three landfills as part of a six-month long pilot project.

And there will be no additional charge for residents to drop off the brittle polystyrene packaging that came with their new TV or computer.

Elias Tomaras, a project manager with the City of Calgary, said Styrofoam materials are not currently accepted in its recycling programs. That means every year, tonnes of the materials are buried at its landfills, which takes up valuable space.

"Given that approximately one per cent of the material that does end up in our landfills is Styrofoam packaging, we're looking at other diversion opportunities for this recyclable product," he said.

A local company, Styro-Go Canada, was the winning bidder to haul away the material once it's set aside at the landfills.

Tomaras said the firm will melt down the packaging and pour it into moulds to produce small hand-sized bricks of polystyrene, which are then sold to other companies.

"These manufacturers end up taking these compacted Styrofoam packaging materials and turning them into new products such as padding in bicycle helmets and children's car seats for example."

Not all Styrofoam created equal

Tomaras said some Calgarians currently believe Styrofoam can be tossed into their blue carts for recycling, but that that's not the case. He said the materials can cause contamination and other issues when they land at the local recycling plant.

People interested in taking part in the pilot project can take their Styrofoam to any of the city's three landfills and head to the recycling sorting area, said Tomaras. 

There, the materials will be placed in bags in a sea container.

As for what types of Styrofoam they'll accept, he offered some advice.

"It needs to be clean. There can't be any tape or labels on the Styrofoam packaging and if you bring anything like Styrofoam meat trays or takeout containers or egg containers, it needs to clean of any sort of food residue."

Tomaras added there are some products the recycling sites will not accept, including any black-coloured Styrofoam and packing peanuts made of foam material.

After the pilot is complete, he said the program will be evaluated to see if enough material was diverted to make continuing the practice worthwhile.

With the new project underway, Calgary is joining the ranks of other Alberta municipalities that recycle Styrofoam. That list includes Edmonton, Cochrane, Airdrie and Okotoks.