Narrator: What people refer to as Styrofoam is usually expanded polystyrene foam.
Many think it can't be recycled, but it can.
And that's likely because less than 1% of it gets recycled,
even though we make enough to fill more than 700
Empire State Buildings every year.
And now one company has found a way to turn all this trash
into treasure — or rather, photo frames.
But why aren't more companies doing this?
We went to Mexico City to find out.
Announcer: New materials, countless in their numbers
and varieties, have been created.
Narrator: "Styrofoam" is actually a brand, developed by
The Dow Chemical Company, and now owned by DuPont.
It only refers to a kind of plastic used in construction and insulation.
There's actually no such thing as a "Styrofoam cup."
Instead, it's expanded polystyrene foam that is a kind of plastic
scientists first created in the 1940s.
Today, it's estimated that this kind of foam
takes up about 30% of the world's landfills.
A company called Rennueva has found a way to make money
recycling this cheap product.
Corporations pay Rennueva to handle their polystyrene waste,
and regular people can drop off their own
at the company's facility.
It also hosts collection efforts like this one
at a local university.
All told, Héctor and his team handle 16 metric tons
of plastic per week.
Narrator: 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.
In terms of size, the ratio of pre-densified foam
to post-densified foam is about 90 to one.
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.
Rennueva sells these pellets to companies like
Marcos y Marcos, which turns them into frames.
The process is actually pretty similar to Rennueva's.
You heat the pellets, mold them,
and then assemble and decorate the frames accordingly.
Narrator: This factory can process 6 tons
of raw material per day
and has actually recycled some of its own old frames.
Different companies use Rennueva's pellets to make heels
for shoes and to make more foam.
Rennueva is working on making plates and cutlery,
but first it needs to make sure
the recycled plastic is safe for food.
That's because polystyrene foam
could pose some health risks.
Scientists have found that foam containers
are generally safe to eat off of,
but some chemicals can transfer into your food or drink,
and they could be harmful over a long period of time.
And breathing in foam particulates is dangerous.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer says
one of the main components of polystyrene
is a "probable carcinogen,"
though the EPA hasn't classified it as such.
Héctor and his team are realistic.
They know this kind of plastic isn't going anywhere soon.
So their solution to waste relies on a circular economy —
reduce trash by reusing it.
Narrator: Most recycling facilities
don't handle polystyrene foam,
and as a result, many people simply throw the product away.
Rennueva has outreach programs to let people know
the product can be recycled.
Narrator: The company says that it now recycles
5% of the polystyrene foam used in Mexico City.
But we were unable to independently verify that fact.
Narrator: Rennueva has recycled 1,200 metric tons
of foam since its founding in 2014,
a small fraction of the amount produced
worldwide every year.
That helps explain why everyone isn't copying
the Rennueva model.
Most polystyrene products are cheap,
in part because more than 90% of them is just air.
That makes them very light, but also means you need a lot
to make recycling profitable.
They're also often covered in food waste and can break apart
really easily, which makes them tough to process.
There are a few similar facilities that run on the Rennueva model,
like this one in China,
or the Canadian company Styro-Go, which uses mobile trucks
to densify polystyrene foam on site.
But many people around the world are pushing to simply end
the use of foam rather than figure out how to recycle it.
The European Union, China, Costa Rica, and US states
like New York and Colorado
have all announced or implemented bans on
single-use plastics like polystyrene foam.
Mexico City banned single-use plastic starting in 2021,
but that doesn't include polystyrene foam.
So the product is everywhere, and it fuels
the Central de Abasto, one of Mexico City's
largest wholesale food markets.
Narrator: Food vendors like Irene
depend on that product's low price.
Narrator: That's why plastic bans don't always have
the intended effects.
Narrator: This supports Rennueva's main idea,
that single-use plastic should be recycled.
According to Héctor,
the solution to all the plastic sitting in our landfills is to ...
use the plastic sitting in our landfills.
And any environmental action that doesn't make economic
sense isn't realistic.