Styrofoam: It’s Effects On Us And Our Planet

Rec & Environmental QualitySection: 020Professor: Pamela HeiseBy: Shannon Graham & Sabrena Csizmadi

What is Styrofoam?• It was invented in 1938, It’s generic name is Polystyrene.• It is petroleum-based plastic made from the styrene monomer. • Dow Chemical is it’s creator; the one who brought us zip lock bags and bleach. • It has excellent insulating properties that keep hot products hot and cold products cold much longer than disposable paper cups and boxes. • Styrofoam is one of the first modern pollutants that is considered a necessity of everyday commerce and agriculture. • It pollutes us and the earth, but these effects are not perceptible unless you visit a landfill or a polluted riverfront or beach front. • Styrofoam has many useful purposes, but the consequences of its use should be examined.

Facts:• Mississauga, Ontario in Canada had a Styrofoam recycling plant from 1991-2008, was owned and operated by Canadian Polystyrene Recycling Association (CPRA). Forced to close• Our nation averages 547, 945 tons of garbage per day and Styrofoam products makes up 0.25% this equals 1,369 tons.• It costs the one recycling entity $3,320 per ton, Styrofoam waste takes up 25-30% of our nations land fill space. • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says “That of the 3 million tons of polystyrene produced in the U.S., 2.3 million tons end up in landfills, with much of the remainder finding its way into waterways.”• French ministry of ecology and sustainable development, “more than 14 million tons of polystyrene are produced every year around the world”.• North Americans throw away 60 billion cups, 20 billion eating utensils and 25 billion Styrofoam plates year. It is said that landfill mass could be reduced by 30% if society took biodegradable options seriously.• About 30 municipalities in California and 14 cities from San Francisco to Portland, Oragon have ban Styrofoam to date. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN1vH2njwUo

How does it effect our Agricultural Society?• Farmers rely on Styrofoam to protect their produce, meat and eggs from bruising, breaking and rotting during its travels to the grocery stores. • Styrofoam protects and preserves• Some people even prefer it for hygienic reasons. • It ends up in our landfills eventually breaking down creating greenhouse gases. • Grocery stores like Loblaw's use Styrofoam trays to place meat, eggs and vegetables on. • The more people who become aware of the dangers of Styrofoam packaged foods, the less these brands who use Styrofoam will be purchased.

How does it effect our Agricultural Society?• In 1991 the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station detected volatile styrene monomers in shell eggs stored in Styrofoam • Egg dishes cooked with these contaminated eggs contained seven times more benzene and styrene• It is suspected that the volatile compounds can migrate through the porous shells into the edible portions of the eggs.• Styrofoam is convenient packaging for farmers products, but in the end its piling up in the landfills and running off into surrounding waters and farm lands causing a negative effect to live stocks and crops.

• When Styrofoam sits in landfills, it captures water causing garbage to soak until it’s a soup like mixture. • You can recycle Styrofoam, like you can plastic, but it is difficult to do • Styrofoam is generally not recycled but is just thrown into landfills and new Styrofoam is produced to meet demands. • Due to cost of recycling polystyrene and the lack of value in it at this time there is little infrastructure in place to recycle the large amounts of polystyrene created annually.

Styrofoam and our Environment:

Today almost 40% of the energy we consume globally is used by the building sector. This energy is used in buildings to heat and cool the places we live, work, learn and play. If buildings are poorly insulated, this energy is lost. Styrofoam is a solution that dramatically reduces this energy loss from buildings, saving more than 10 billion dollars in energy costs annually. http://building.dow.com/

Industrial/What its used for:• Coffee cups, disposable plates and takeout containers.• Packaging delicate materials• Crafts • Construction companies for installation•. Put in items like refrigerators, freezers , coolers, bean bag chairs etc.

Wildlife: • Styrofoam also has a negative effect on our wildlife. • Choking hazard for children and animals, since it can be broken into small pieces so easily.• Wildlife can wander into landfills and eat it resulting in them choking, clogging their digestive system and becoming sick. • Resulting in reduced population. • If more space is needed for landfills to discard Styrofoam, animals will lose valuable habitat space. • Also has a negative effect on marine life

Social and Cultural Effects: • Styrofoam is harmful to humans health. • Contains chemicals that over time and continuous exposure can build in the body and cause many health issues. • Styrofoam cups apparently lose weight during the time they are at use. (because chemicals leach into the beverage)• One U.S EPA study of human fat biopsies found styrene residue in every single sample. • Styrene is easily transferred from a container to your food or beverage; and the hotter or fattier the food, the more styrene is absorbed. • Benzene is another toxic chemical component of Styrofoam. It can enter the human body either through the skin or respiratory system.

• The largest health concern with polystyrene is the dangers associated with styrene; the building block of Styrofoam.• Styrene causes cancer in animals, but it has not yet been proven to cause cancer in humans. • Styrene attacks the central and peripheral nervous system. • Its correlated with acute or chronic functional impairment of the nervous system. • People the food and drug administration (FDA), would not allow a health threatening product to be marketed to the public.

Effects on Recreation:• Out door recreational activities tend to produce Styrofoam debris. • Choosing not to use that Styrofoam products and cleaning up next time you’re out camping, at a B.B.Q, picnic, etc. could save help our recreational environments. • If the environmental quality of the areas we use for recreational activities decline, people will lose interest and stop participating, for a number of different reasons. • Major reasons being health and safety concerns. • People may no longer participate in, or around the affected grounds or bodies of waters.• People may lose interest in their recreational activity because the environment has lost the appeal it once had

Recommendations:• Buy eggs in recycled paper cartons• Buy meat in plastic bags or cardboard boxes• Use travel coffee mugs and other portable beverage containers•Refuse to purchase things when you see they use Styrofoam•Educate others about what you now know• Trellis Earth bioplastic• corn and vegetable-starch based

products• 100% biodegradable and compostable• compost at a rate of 90% in 90 days

and a rate of 100% in 180 days• FDA certified

•Earth Shell• Santa Barbara, California• resin is used from potato starches,

French fry wastes, limestone, post-consumer fibre, air, water and protective coatings, making their products 100%biodegratable.

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