The Fraser Coast Region is a local government area in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland, Australia, which is a place where spectacular nature, intimate wildlife encounters and bustling historic villages combine. New figure revealed how much rubbish has been saved from landfill as the Fraser Coast embraces green living. More than 60,000 tonnes of material was diverted from Fraser Coast landfill for recycling and reuse in the 2019/20 financial year,  including 462.55 tonnes recycled Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) through the Nikenbah and Maryborough tip shops.

Fraser Coast Council’s Polystyrene Recycling

This year the Council bought an EPS melting machine to divert polystyrene from landfill. “As a result, we have recycled more than 500 cubic metres of polystyrene since May 2020, which have been compacted by 90% into 225 blocks,” Councillor David Lee said.

The polystyrene can be used to make picture frames, skirting boards and decking.  Cr Lee said polystyrene could be dropped off at Council’s Nikenbah and Maryborough waste facilities. The Council accepts up to 1 cubic metre of clean polystyrene for free (about a trailer load), which means that anyone who has bought a new items, such as a television or a fridge can drop off for free the polystyrene packing, along with the cardboard, to the Nikenbah and Maryborough waste facilities.

Why did the EPS melting machine help a lot?

As the Cr Lee  mentioned above, the Council bought an EPS melting machine that helps to compact waste polystyrene by 90% into 225 blocks, which means that the volume ratio of the polystyrene compressed material that has been melted by the EPS melting machine to the original foam waste can reach 90:1. It’s amazing!

So why did the EPS melting machine help a lot? What’s the working principle of the amazing polystyrene recycling machine? Actually, the EPS melting machine the Fraser Coast Council bought is a polystyrene recycling machine equipped with the screw melting technology, specialized in reducing the volume of waste expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) by crushing, hot melting and extrusion molding.

When the polystyrene melting machine starts, throw the waste polystyrene foam into the machine hopper where it is crushed into small pieces, then drop into the screw part where the crushed foam pieces will be pushed out and then melted by heating parts. Finally, the polystyrene waste will become the hot melted ingots with the density of 90:1, greatly saving transportation and storage costs.