Polystyrene & the Planet – A Cleaner Choice Than You Might Think

What is Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)?

Expanded Polystyrene better known as EPS, is a clever little material with a big personality. It’s a lightweight, rigid foam packed with versatility, popping up in everything from product packaging to theatre props and building insulation.

Surprisingly, it all starts with crude oil. During the hydrocarbon separation process, only about 0.1% of the oil goes on to become polystyrene, so it’s a tiny slice doing a mighty job!

EPS is made from just three key ingredients:

Steam – The magical element that expands and fuses the beads together. Bonus: the water is reused throughout the process, keeping it eco-friendly and efficient

Styrene – Found naturally in strawberries and coffee (yep, you’ve met it before), and manufactured in the UK for over 60 years.

Pentane – A non-CFC blowing agent that gives the polystyrene beads their puffed-up, cellular structure.

Recycling Polystyrene

We’re proud to say that polystyrene is 100% recyclable and at Pabrico, we walk the talk by recycling every single scrap of our own polystyrene waste. Better yet, we invite all our customers to return any unused or used EPS they’ve purchased from us, so it stays far away from landfill and gets a brand-new purpose.

Here’s how the magic happens: all returned polystyrene is fed into our compactor, which crunches down large pieces into near-bead form and compresses them into solid briquettes. These are then sent off to a specialist recycling centre where, using a process with heat, the briquettes are melted down into clean, reusable beads.

Those tiny transformed beads go on to do big things, like becoming sturdy insulation for buildings or keeping contents cool inside smart, sustainable packaging.

It’s clever, clean, and a great way to keep materials in motion.