Packaging News
Polystyrene was accidentally discovered by German pharmacist Edward Simon in 1839, but it was nearly a century before its use was commercialised by the IG Farben Company. It created a polymer which was hard and colourless and could be cast into moulds with very fine detail.
The foam version of polystyrene that many of us associate with the name was developed by the Dow Chemical Company, which introduced polystyrene products to the US. Its discovery was another accident, as Dow employee Ray McIntire was attempting to develop a flexible insulator by combining materials under pressure. In the event, he ended up creating foam polystyrene, a material which expanded 40 times in size and was much lighter than regular polystyrene.
Dow trademarked this expanded polystyrene (EPS) as Styrofoam, a material that could be moulded easily, giving birth to foam packaging. Because of its excellent impact resistance, light weight and low cost, it became widely used as a protective packaging for goods in transit. It also offers good hygiene and insulation protection so it can be used in a wide variety of applications from cups for hot drinks to protection of food from damage and contamination.
However all is not rosy in the world of EPS. The product takes around 500 years to biodegrade and recycling is limited. Many companies that once relied on it now look to alternatives, such as moulded pulp for packaging.
As such, plastics get a lot of bad press. PVC was once labelled the “bad” plastic and EPS has been viewed in a similar way. Nonetheless, these plastics do a great job of protecting and preserving the products we buy. As with all packaging, if we recover the materials used we can do something with them. Germany currently recover PS and EPS and this recyclate can be reused or incinerated to generate energy. All polymers and bio-polymers have a purpose and we use them every day. increase recycling and the demand for recyclate and we can effectively continue to use these great materials environmentally guilt free.
This July New York became the biggest US city to ban polystyrene foam, after the city’s sanitation department determined that it is non-recyclable, a hazard to marine wildlife and a contaminant to the city’s organics programme. New York collects approximately 28,500 tons of expanded polystyrene of which about 90% is from single-use food-service products like cups, trays and containers.
Gillian Garside-Wight, packaging technology director, Sun Branding Solutions
