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Facts of Styrofoam Recycling

Kinds of recycling machines occupy an important place in the field of Styrofoam recycling. Whether it is foam terminal sources, such as foam manufacturers, foam convertors, furniture and household appliances industry, fish plants and processors, large-scale stores, or it is recyclers of all kinds of plastics and other waste, all of them are facing the problem that bulky Styrofoam scarps and wastes not only take up space, but lead to high transportation expenses. Market data shows that two types of machines are most commonly used both with advantages and disadvantages.

Principle of Foam Densifier

This equipment is mainly used for Styrofoam (Expanded Polystyrene), PE foam (Expandable Polyethylene), XPS (Extruded Polystyrene), EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) etc. These foam materials will be pulverized by the crusher first, then melted and extruded. The advantages of foam thermal densifier lie in that it has reliable and simple operation, compact structure and responsive action, easy and low cost maintenance and protection. Processed by foam densifier, the foam compression ratio can be much greater after hot melting. However, when dealing with foam fish box or foam fruit box, the thermal densifier will no longer be suitable as these foam is always moisture.

Principal of Foam Compactor

Similar to foam densifier, this equipment is also used for Styrofoam (Expanded Polystyrene), PE foam (Expandable Polyethylene), XPS (Extruded Polystyrene), EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) etc. Different from hot melting, the foam compactor owns the feature of cold compacting. Styrofoam waste is crushed into pieces through the crusher and compressed by screw, then formed into a solid block in the molding chute. The advantage is its environmental-friendly feature without hotting while the disadvantage is its foam compression ratio, which is relatively lower than the foam densifier.

Market Selection for Styrofoam Recycling

Faced with the dazzling recycling machines in the market, businesses with urgent recycling needs sometimes don't know how to choose. According to incomplete statistics, the foam densifiers are preferred in North America, but cold compactors are more popular in Europe due to different habits and preferences, or different government policy.