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After any furniture delivery, including a new mattress from STL Beds, packaging materials such as styrofoam, cardboard, and stretch film should be disposed of properly. Here are some options to dispose of packing materials:
- Styrofoam: EPS, discarded in regular landfills, decomposes very slowly. Sunlight and natural conditions don’t speed up this process, leaving the material sitting for years. Incineration, the simplest disposal method, is environmentally unsafe, releasing excessive carbon dioxide and toxic smoke. Recycling EPS foam is the correct and eco-friendly approach, avoiding further harm to the environment and human health.
- Cardboard: from the list, garbage is the safest and can decompose quickly, but it is still better to send it for recycling.
- Some recycling facilities accept stretch film recycling, let’s analyze this in more detail.
The best option is to recycle the waste. Firstly, you reduce the amount of stretch film going to landfills, where decomposing takes hundreds of years. Secondly, you can profit from it. Scrap Management inc specializes in collecting and processing secondary raw materials and purchases stretch film waste in any form.
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Where Does Stretch Film Waste Come From?
Stretch film is currently the most popular type of packaging in both the food industry and cargo transportation. It gained popularity due to its stretch properties, tightly securing products, and providing high strength against tears and punctures. It has good transparency and is approved for food packaging. Consequently, the consumption of this film is widespread in industry and households, resulting in a large amount of waste.
Unfortunately, stretch film is disposable, and after product transportation or food packaging, it inevitably ends up as waste in landfills, where it remains for hundreds of years. Currently, there are two methods of its disposal. The first method is incineration, which is safer than landfilling but still releases harmful substances into the atmosphere. The second method is recycling, where the film is processed into new plastic products.
How Are Stretch Film Waste Recycled?
Stretch film, like other types of polyethylene, is easily recyclable and retains its properties. The recycling process involves several main stages: waste sorting and recycling.
Waste sorting is a production process that carefully separates the film into several commercial groups based on color, contamination, and grade (primary or secondary raw material). Labels, tape, and other impurities are removed during the sorting process.
Recycling processes include material shredding, washing to remove contaminants, drying, agglomeration, and granulation (melting and thorough mixing of the plastic mass). The resulting recycled granules are used for the production of secondary stretch film, garbage bags, and packaging, as well as additives for technical and construction polyethylene films, and more.
By sorting waste and disposing of packing materials by sending them for recycling, you help save the environment and provide many jobs.
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