| There are commercial processes for reprocessing polystyrene, but a lot of it is thrown away by consumers because they don't have easy access to them. Most domestic recycling schemes don't collect it because it comprises a very small quantity of our individual waste, and potentially it is of very low value as well. Although called polystyrene recycling, it is not a material that is ideal for recycling as it suffers significant degradation when reprocessed. It's mostly used in rather small quantities as a ground up filler in new expanded polystyrene, it reduces the end product's properties significantly and because it is limited to only a small amount of the product's mass, even with maximum recycling, something far from achieved, the polystyrene industry would still require vast quantities of new materials and generate lots of post-consumer waste. This site tells you a lot more about recycling/reprocessing it, although it is an industry funded program so it does rather look on the bright side of expanded polystyrene: |
Here is a link that might be useful: Alliance of foam packaging recyclers
