Styrofoam Collection Event

Meredith Recycle Rotary Styrofoam

Styrofoam Recycling Collection Events

 
Once again, we are back collecting styrofoam from the general public. We collected seven (7) large 1-yard bags of styrofoam material!
 
One of our Rotarians, Harry Reichlen, is leading the effort to recycle all styrofoam in the town of Meredith. Working with the Meredith Town Municipal Department, the Rotary Club collects from the town residents every three months at Meredith’s Solid Waste Facility recycling building.
 
Polystyrene foam (Styrofoam)—Expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) is a #6 plastic often referred to by the trade name “Styrofoam.” EPS is 90% air and typically lightweight and bulky. It's valued for being sturdy, lightweight, and capable of preserving temperature, resisting water, and absorbing shocks. This makes it great for keeping perishable items fresh during transportation. It's widely used, especially in packaging (40%) and insulation.
 
Typically, Styrofoam is single-use packaging that becomes bulky volume in our trash streams, a challenge to municipal transfer stations.
 
Pictures from left: Harry Reichlan, John Columbus, and Julieanne Gilchrist.
 
 

The Next Collection event is:  Saturday, July 19, 2025

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Styrofoam Collection Day - September 21, 2024
The Town of Meredith approved to have the Meredith Rotary place signage at Meredith’s Solid Waste Facility before our next recycle collection day on for Spetember 21, 2024, to help get the word out that a recycling day would happen.
 
Our collection stand was at Meredith’s Solid Waste Facility. Residents stopped by to donate their styrofoam packaging materials. Four of our volunteers pictured from left, Bill Gilchrist, Julieanne Gilchrist, John Columbus, and Harry Reichlen, received the styrofoam pieces and packed them into large plastic bags for transport to the recycling center in Guilford.
Here is Libby and Harry Reichlen after loading all the collected styrofoam at the end of a successful collection day for transport to the Gilford recycling center. With this initial success, Meredith Rotary plans to hold future
collection days once every three months.
This is a sample guide for collection of recyclable styrofoam. Items must be clean or uncontaiminated. We cannot accept foam insulation, plastic peanuts or pipe insulation.
 
 

What happens to recycled styrofoam?

Now, the collected foam goes to the Gilford recycle center to be transformed into dense blocks, which are then sold to Canadian-based Soprema to be turned into building construction materials. This picture shows how styrofoam materials can be used in construction.