3 ms·

What's wrong with styrofoam, assuming it is disposed of properly? Does it cause problems when tossed into a landfill? I think styrofoam is actually pretty goo

What's wrong with styrofoam, assuming it is disposed of properly? Does it cause problems when tossed into a landfill? I think styrofoam is actually pretty good, per unit of source material, because it is expanded so much.

zone411 8y ago
https://sustainability.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Impacts-of-Styrofoam.pdf https://sustainability.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/... Styrofoam for single-use products has been banned in NYC already.
- chrisco255 8y ago
  Can you produce a less fanatical source? This PDF spuriously links styrofoam to Parkinson's disease. As I've seen vaccinations blamed for autism, I'm going to disregard this source as reliable.
  - zone411 8y ago
    You're right, not a good source. Google does a poor job of bringing up unbiased soruces. A better term to search for is expanded polystyrene foam. Here are some sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33334994 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33334994 https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/aug/27/styrene-carcinogen-brands-polystyrene-foam-food-packaging https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/aug/27... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12299-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12299-2 The EU has decided to ban throwaway polystyrene foam but I don't know if this counts for much as I don't know how much science was taken into account. There will be a comprehensive risk assessment by the EPA: https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/risk-evaluation-cyclic-aliphatic-bromide-cluster-hbcd https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-t.... My worry is when packaging EPS breaks down into tiny particles that could be inhaled. This cannot be great.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
acchow 8y ago
Styrofoam essentially lasts forever. The planet has finite landfill space. Also, not everything ends up in the landfill but ends up polluting our oceans instead. Unlike paper which will eventually decompose in the ocean, styrofoam will just pile up.
- 01100011 8y ago
  Landfills are storage units and will likely turn into vast repositories of useful materials when we have the energy and technology to sort through them. What is wrong with styrofoam piling up? According to wikipedia, styrofoam doesn't essentially last forever. Also, what's with the downvotes for asking a question? This place really seems to be going the way of reddit. Too bad... was a nice place to discuss the facts for a while. Apologies for making anyone question dogma.
  - acchow 8y ago
    It's not dogma. You are saying "what's wrong with using things once then shoving it in a landfill". That behavior doesn't scale and is unsustainable. And that mentality leads to ever increasing pollution.
    - 01100011 8y ago
      No, what I'm saying is, what's wrong with storing things in a landfill until it is economically feasible to reprocess them. At some point, we're going to want to dig up the resources in a landfill. They're much more concentrated than in the natural environment. The dogma is thinking landfills are one-way collection systems which grow without bound. As long as they're not leaking into the environment, they seem like perfectly reasonable ways of storing things we do not currently have a use for.

zone411 8y ago

https://sustainability.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Impacts-of-Styrofoam.pdf https://sustainability.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/... Styrofoam for single-use products has been banned in NYC already.

chrisco255 8y ago
Can you produce a less fanatical source? This PDF spuriously links styrofoam to Parkinson's disease. As I've seen vaccinations blamed for autism, I'm going to disregard this source as reliable.
- zone411 8y ago
  You're right, not a good source. Google does a poor job of bringing up unbiased soruces. A better term to search for is expanded polystyrene foam. Here are some sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33334994 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33334994 https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/aug/27/styrene-carcinogen-brands-polystyrene-foam-food-packaging https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/aug/27... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12299-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12299-2 The EU has decided to ban throwaway polystyrene foam but I don't know if this counts for much as I don't know how much science was taken into account. There will be a comprehensive risk assessment by the EPA: https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/risk-evaluation-cyclic-aliphatic-bromide-cluster-hbcd https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-t.... My worry is when packaging EPS breaks down into tiny particles that could be inhaled. This cannot be great.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

acchow 8y ago

Styrofoam essentially lasts forever. The planet has finite landfill space. Also, not everything ends up in the landfill but ends up polluting our oceans instead. Unlike paper which will eventually decompose in the ocean, styrofoam will just pile up.

01100011 8y ago
Landfills are storage units and will likely turn into vast repositories of useful materials when we have the energy and technology to sort through them. What is wrong with styrofoam piling up? According to wikipedia, styrofoam doesn't essentially last forever. Also, what's with the downvotes for asking a question? This place really seems to be going the way of reddit. Too bad... was a nice place to discuss the facts for a while. Apologies for making anyone question dogma.
- acchow 8y ago
  It's not dogma. You are saying "what's wrong with using things once then shoving it in a landfill". That behavior doesn't scale and is unsustainable. And that mentality leads to ever increasing pollution.
  - 01100011 8y ago
    No, what I'm saying is, what's wrong with storing things in a landfill until it is economically feasible to reprocess them. At some point, we're going to want to dig up the resources in a landfill. They're much more concentrated than in the natural environment. The dogma is thinking landfills are one-way collection systems which grow without bound. As long as they're not leaking into the environment, they seem like perfectly reasonable ways of storing things we do not currently have a use for.