The EPS Industry Alliance (EPS-IA) is at the forefront of our industry, leading the way with innovative solutions for a sustainable future. Their shared industry mission has facilitated the development of recycling and awareness communications and programs, which many EPS manufacturers actively promote and are participants.
According to the EPS-IA’s Executive Director, Betsy Bowers, “existing EPS recycling efforts are heavily reliant on the EPS manufacturers that collect EPS waste at their plant locations to be used as recycled content in new EPS packaging.” Plymouth Foam (PF) is one of those EPS manufacturers with an EPS recycling bin available year round at our Plymouth, Wisconsin location.
In recent events, EPS packaging has played a significant role in transporting COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccine’s critical properties are kept at a tightly controlled temperature, made possible by custom molded EPS shipping containers. To date, the vaccine has been distributed to more than 10,000 locations.
The EPS-IA hopes to facilitate an initiative to recycle COVID-19 vaccine containers by reaching out to COVID‐19 vaccine supply coordinators. “In the past, several pharmaceutical companies (Sanofi Pasteur, Merck, et.al), successfully implemented a pre‐paid return shipping label for EPS cold‐chain coolers. These programs typically recaptured 26% of the EPS product use at an average cost of $3.00/unit. This approach enabled smaller quantities to be collected without relying on local collection streams but was also conducive to larger quantities that were outside the recommended 100‐mile radius of existing locations. The pre‐paid labels were commissioned from a private carrier and were delivered to one of three EPS recycling facilities located in California, Michigan, and Florida.”
Learn more: Recycling Opportunities for COVID‐19 Vaccine Shippers
Our commitment to the industry and to our customers extend the full product life cycle, from the beginning to the end. Let us know if we can provide engineering and design assistance on your new projects or if you are interested in learning more about our recycling program. Contact us at sales@plymouthfoam.com