I was at the tip yesterday & i noticed on the list of forbiden goods polystyrene is now not accepted along with asbestos chemicals
Dead pets &human remains.
So my question is are they going to ban polystyrene as packaging ?
Because it seems every thing you buy comes with polystyrene as packing .
What are you supposed to do with it then ?
Can polystyrene be recycled?
Crushed up &reused?
I get heaps of it from work as well .
The insulated roof sheets come packed in heaps of it &while i have been using the bigger bits to insulate the shed thats nearly finished.

I have seen a surfboars made from cardboard (you tube it ( and one from twisties, yeah twisties the ones you eat. Get all the polystyrene and make board some sort of compression and laninating machine.
I dont know how we could get rid of it all

good insulation , flotation ????????????????beanbags !!! noooooo just joking with the beanbag comment !

a good opportunity for a team of uni students to develop a recycling plant

Ive been thinking maybe if you shredded it coated with fire retardation &using a bark blower you could pump into house wall cavities & start up a wall insulation business. Would make a massive difference to your heating and cooling bills .

If you dissolved it all down to a lump the size of your fist and bunged that in the bin they would not know....
or if it goes back into the cardboard box it came in and gets thrown in the cardboard pile
Maybe the tip is better off having a special area for it, if you refuse to accept it you just create a worse problem elsewhere...

If you ban polystyrene are we going to ban human remains as well?

Well I've always told the kids I hope to die on a Wednesday night so I can go in the bin for Thursday. Save them mucking around .
So I guess thats out now .
Suppose have to be a full Viking funeral as my second choice .But
Epa be onto that as well I suppose.

You can dissolve a hell of a lot of it with a relatively small amount of acetone.
Not sure what bad chemicals you produce from it so don't go breathing it in

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oz surf said..
You can dissolve a hell of a lot of it with a relatively small amount of acetone.
Not sure what bad chemicals you produce from it so don't go breathing it in

If you are not bothered by the mess, petrol dissolves it too and leaves a strong odor. Its a bit slower than acetone too, but a fair bit cheaper.

I may or may not have melted it down to put it into the bin when faced with lots to get rid of. Its sticks to things so, don't use anything you want back.

My understanding is that the 'resource recovery centres' just want to make as much money as they can and polystyrene is too bulky for its weight. They even charge a different charge for bulk lots of it.

So, mix it in with the other heavier stuff, and as long as they don't realise, it should be good.

Actually polysterene as a bladder replacement? Yeah, can't pack your kite down anymore, but could come in sections? Anything to rid of bladders and valves for ever, is worth investing in - other than foil kites. Just an idea.

I use a lot of polystyrene in parts of my job and the waste we end up with we recycle it by bagging it up and sending it back to the manufacturer. They grind it up and use it again in some of their products.

Resources recovery centres are now charging $160 per ton to take steel which they get $90 per ton at scrapmetal recycling centres.
Far more profitable than mining
Plastic is not recycled anymore .&i dont think e waste is recycled. Yet both of that was done when private
Mattresses are $60each $base is $60each so thats why you see so many on the side of the road .
Less now the Salvo's have created a mattress recycling centre were they now make new Mattresses .&they go around collecting them from the roadsides
What totally blows my mind is its state government run yet the cost of rubbish removal is so high trucks take rubbish to qld as its cheaper for large companies yet every time I go there is less recycling and more thats banned .
There would be no way a private industry could keep increasing costs yet provide less service & the rate has gone from $50 a ton to $300 a ton in 10 years .
Green waste was free now $180a ton yet I don't get a green bin for garden waste &that was promised 15 years ago before they started charging for it &yet blacktown council is the richest council in sydeny with a budget of $32 billion &yet every other council gives out a green bin to residents .
Sutherland shire they get 2.
Were all told to do our bit for the environment &recycle &no littering its got nothing to do with environmental protection its a con &blatant cash grab .
I can understand that polystyrene doesn't break down as land fill but when every tv electrical &white goods etc come packaged in it surely you need to have something to take the waste from this or were going to end up with it being dumped on side of the road being broken up &littering everything &getting into all water ways & we end up with a scum of polystyrene floating in every Creek &river dam etc we wil have killed all the birds, fish ,turtles etc .
Because thats protecting the environment .

I like that hardcarve I'll have to suggest this to stratco maybe we should push for manufacturers to have recycling as part of the deal of manufacturing they get some free materials because the government is not going to do anything to help about any problems its all cash grab &grandstanding as far as I'm concerned .

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actiomax said..

What totally blows my mind is its state government run yet the cost of rubbish removal is so high trucks take rubbish to qld as its cheaper for large companies yet every time I go there is less recycling and more thats banned .

Green waste was free now $180a ton yet I don't get a green bin for garden waste &that was promised 15 years ago before they started charging for it &yet blacktown council is the richest council in sydeny with a budget of $32 billion &yet every other council gives out a green bin to residents .
Sutherland shire they get 2.

No, as far as I know its not state government run. They appear to tender the management of the recover centres to private enterprise. This suggests that the government gets as much money as the highest tenderer will pay, and as a result, charges go up.

I think the company running the one near me changed about two years ago.

Yes, you get 2 green waste bins in the Sutherland Shire if you ask for the second. I am not sure if its because its any cheaper, or if the council made an arrangement with the waste management people when they recently renewed the lease to the site for the next bazillion years.

I saw a program on sustainable living (in England) and the crew there got styrene from a local business that was being over-run with the stuff. Basically they 'mulched' it and used it as thermal insulation in the walls. Worked a treat and was a win-win for all involved. So a business opportunity I suppose, although the fire risk would have to be addressed.

Under the Packaging Covenant of which most manufacturers and others are signatory to.

http://www.packagingcovenant.org.au/signatories.phpmanufacturers

The manufacturers are responsible to provide a viable means of recycling the packaging that came with their product.
if for instance you did not have kerbside recycling for your bottles you can ring the manufacturer and they are bound to come and get them.

So first call is ring the manufacturer and ask him what is their method - that does not include you paying or delivering it to them.

Agent Nods that is interesting .
Didn't know that must be the new thing I learn today.

I have been involved in the Packaging Industry for along time and was involved in the negotiations for the covenant's inception.
there were so many parties involved - some where so useless (local govt).

It was BHP steel at the time... they offered to put in a ferrous metal separator, so you could just throw steel waste in normal garbage and the it would screen all waste and automatically separate the steel. This would eliminate the useless kerbside pick ups. BHP asked,Where do you want it?

Sydney local govt said great we will have 5. BHP said no, one.....they cost many many millions to put in and run. You choose which facility will be the recipient - the local councils involved came back....not in my back yard!

That's the typical thinking that really gets up my nose ..
People want solutions to these problems and when there offered they get rejected .
Its just another reason to get rid of counxils .
The council wont do a kerbside pick up of the steel I have as its building waste & even if they did it would only be going to land fill.
I got a retired bloke who comes &cillects that from me &cashes it in .
I actually do my best to try recycle everything .
I can take soft plastic to a place that compresses it &ships it to china ..
But somehow we dont separate plastic at tip it just goes to landfill.
Wtf there must be money in it or it wouldn't be going to china .
What gets me is more was recycled there would be more space in the landfill &the tip could run for longer

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actiomax said..
That's the typical thinking that really gets up my nose ..
People want solutions to these problems and when there offered they get rejected .
Its just another reason to get rid of counxils .
The council wont do a kerbside pick up of the steel I have as its building waste & even if they did it would only be going to land fill.
I got a retired bloke who comes &cillects that from me &cashes it in .
I actually do my best to try recycle everything .
I can take soft plastic to a place that compresses it &ships it to china ..
But somehow we dont separate plastic at tip it just goes to landfill.
Wtf there must be money in it or it wouldn't be going to china .
What gets me is more was recycled there would be more space in the landfill &the tip could run for longer

There is probably only money in it because you can use a cheap labour force to sort it out at the other end.

The freight to China is probably cheap too as they may normally return lightly loaded.

When iron ore was expensive anyone would take steel, now, places still do but they are more picky about what they take.

What about in future when resources are drying up i bet the tips will be mined&they will not be able to believe we were so wasteful &that tip mining is an environmental disaster waiting to happen but by that stage the planets probably stuffed anyway so I guess it wont matter
Formula nova tip still takes steel they just want to charge me $160a tonne so they can cash it in at $90 a tonne

Ok spoke to the boss.
He agreed they would come & pick up the polystyrene at no cost to us its just they then charge double the
price for delivery.
Which I believe is not the deal agent nods .

Can't you mix polystyrene and diesel to make something useful for hornets nests in the invention thread..?

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actiomax said..
Ok spoke to the boss.
He agreed they would come & pick up the polystyrene at no cost to us its just they then charge double the
price for delivery.
Which I believe is not the deal agent nods .

Get it delivered, then tell him to come and get it.

Check with the Packaging council List of members if he is on it, or the manufacturer of the packaging. If so, ask the Packaging council to intervene.