What is Styrofoam?

Styrofoam is a kind of material that has been widely used for many years. It is often applied in packaging, building materials, containers, and so on. If you see the product with the symbol of "foam#6", it means it is made of Styrofoam. Because of its high-temperature resistance, shock resistance, and other protective advantages, this material is favored by people.

Why Styrofoam Recycling?

With the continuous development of environmental protection, many blue bins have been set up in various states of the United States to collect the used recyclable materials. Unfortunately, foam#6, that is, Styrofoam, is not included. This means that if recycling is not attempted, the Waste Styrofoam will be transported to the dump and finally become the waste streams to pollute the Ocean.

Nowadays, the development of science and technology has changed the pattern of Styrofoam recycling. Many types of Styrofoam recycling machines have been designed to deal with Styrofoam efficiently. Here we will focus on the two most popular Styrofoam recycling devices - Styrofoam compactor and Styrofoam densifier

What is the principal difference between the two types of equipment?

Styrofoam compactor, as a kind of screw compactor, is based on the principle of cold-pressing technology. First, the Styrofoam is crushed, and then the foam is compressed by means of physical extrusion of the screw. In contrast, the Styrofoam densifier is a kind of thermal densifier, which uses hot-melting technology. Firstly, the Styrofoam is crushed and extruded through the screw to make the Styrofoam melt in the screw and extrude through the discharge port.

What are the respective advantages of these two devices?

The screw compactor:

① There is no odor during Styrofoam compression.
② Even if there is water in the material, there will be no image processing, such as fish boxes, fruit and vegetable boxes, and so on.
③ Because there is no heating in the cold pressing process, it is more energy-saving than Styrofoam densifier.
④ Cold pressing technology will not break the internal physical properties of materials and can keep the properties of Styrofoam intact.

The thermal densifier:

① The operation of the thermal densifier is simple than the Styrofoam compactor. In the process of treatment, there is no need to worry about other factors, just change the temperature.
② The material density is higher after hot melting. In general, the compression ratio of cold-pressing compactor is 1:50, while that of hot-melting densifier is 1:90.

How to choose the most suitable recycling machine?

Taking the all above-mentioned into consideration，It is not difficult to see that Styrofoam compactor and Styrofoam densifier each have their own advantages. It cannot strictly say which is better. So, for recyclers who urgently need a Styrofoam recycling machine to ensure the operation of the recycling project, how do choose the most suitable machine? This requires thinking about two questions: What factors will affect recycling? What effect do you want to achieve？

We will list a few questions for you to consider in combination with the above, in order to make a better choice:

① Does the local environmental protection policy allow gas emission?
② Are there any strict restrictions on energy consumption?
③ Does the material you want to recycle contain water?
④ Do you want a higher compression ratio?
⑤ Do you expect lower operation difficulty?

In a word, both Styrofoam compactor and Styrofoam densifier have made great contributions to recycling. For example, GREENMAX Recycling has launched a 100% recycling project based on these types of equipment.

The loose Styrofoam processed by these two kinds of equipment will become the raw material for making plastic particles - Styrofoam ingots/blocks. Finally, it has become the picture frame, skirting line, and other products, which are sold at home and abroad, completing the recycling closed-loop and contributing to the circular economy.