If your business is committed to improving the sustainability of your packaging or operations, recycled foams can play a significant role.
Recycled foam is a material that uses either pre- or post-consumer waste during its manufacture. Providing performance equivalent to virgin plastic options, recycled foams reduce the use of fossil fuels (petroleum-based plastics) and help divert waste from landfills. Material manufacturers produce recycled foam by shredding, melting or compressing waste material.
At Polyformes, we have helped many businesses improve the sustainability of their foam packaging. We offer a range of recycled foam materials, including the popular Stratocell R and ARPLANK, that combine sustainability with reliable performance. This is in addition to our designers helping you reduce overall material use and our own extensive in-house recycling processes.
Polyformes can offer several recycled-plastic foam options, often substituting virgin materials for more sustainable alternatives. The following grades have recycled options in their respective ranges – please ask a Polyformes expert for further information.
Recycled foams can provide a surprising array of benefits, including:
A common mistake many businesses make is swapping foam for inadequate paper alternatives, resulting in items being damaged during transit. A single damaged product can add a significant amount of CO2 to the atmosphere due to reverse logistics and remanufacturing. Recycled foam keeps transit damage rates close to zero.
Pre-consumer waste consists of manufacturing scraps that never made it into the marketplace. It represents material generated during the manufacturing process that material producers or converters divert from the waste stream before it reaches the end user. Post-consumer waste is material that has served its intended purpose, reached the end of its useful life, and been discarded by a household or commercial user.
Recycled foam uses a percentage of plastic waste that has already been melted down and reformed into new material. Recyclable foam packaging means the end user can easily recycle the material through local waste collection. A single piece of foam packaging can be both recycled and recyclable if it is (at least partly) manufactured from waste and designed for reprocessing later. Please note that no foams are currently accepted in UK kerbside collections.
Modern manufacturing techniques mean that recycled foam matches the structural strength, shock absorption, and thermal insulation of virgin (brand-new) plastic foams. Recycled foam inserts can also undergo extensive testing for impact resistance and compression. They provide equivalent transit protection for fragile electronics, heavy industrial parts, or medical shipments.
Polyformes works closely with several recycled foam manufacturers, allowing us to supply and convert a range of eco-friendly packaging foam.
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