what people refer to as styrofoam is
usually expanded polystyrene foam
a company called renueva has found a way
to make money recycling this cheap
product
workers first grind the material to make
it easier to manage
then they apply heat and pressure in a
process called densification which
squeezes out excess air leaving reusable
plastic behind
a machine heats the material and molds
it into these spaghetti looking strips
the company uses a chemical that's a bit
like antifreeze to cool the strips and
finally a machine dices them into rice
sized pellets
renueva sells these pellets to companies
like marcos and marcos which turns them
into frames
the process is actually pretty similar
to renuevas you heat the pellets mold
them and then assemble and decorate the
frames accordingly
different companies use renueva's
pellets to make heels for shoes and to
make more foam
[Music]
renueva is working on making plates and
cutlery but first it needs to make sure
the recycled plastic is safe for food