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Styrofoam to be diverted from Whitehorse landfill

Raven Recycling is using special machinery to reduce styrofoam to as much as one-fiftieth of its original size, so it can be sent south instead of to the dump.
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Raven Recycling co-ordinator, Dan Lewis, says it's too expensive to ship styrofoam out of the territory without compressing it. (CBC North)

Snowdrifts of styrofoam have been accumulating at Raven Recycling in Whitehorse, and up to now there's been no option except to haul it to the dump.

Now the non-profit society is hoping a $30,000 investment will change that. Raven Recycling has purchased specialized machinery designed to squish styrofoam.  

Dan Lewis is a coordinator with Raven Recycling. He says after the foam is shredded and fed into the compressor, the total volume can be reduced down to just one fiftieth of its original size

The styrofoam compressor can reduce styrofoam to one fiftieth of its original volume. (CBC North)
​"There's hardly any weight and it's not actually cost effective to ship it down south so by compressing it into a tighter cube and gaining some weight it enables us to actually make it viable," Lewis says.  

The centre will accept any type of styrofoam but it says unless people rinse their meat trays styrofoam cups and food containers, their workers could wind up getting sick.

“So if you've got an old meat tray it is important that you wash it out so we don't end up with the health hazard of having it here,” Lewis says.

Styrofoam makes up nearly a third of waste by volume heading to the Whitehorse landfill.

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