Every month, the Austin-Southwest Rotary Club hosts a Styrofoam cleaning session with the goal of minimizing waste and repurposing the material. On behalf of the community, the group gathers, cleans, and dries Styrofoam on the first Saturday of each month and delivers it to the city of Austin's Recycle & Reuse Drop-off Center.

At the recycling center, these waste styrofoam will be further processed, cut into small pieces, and then heated and melted, compressed in this way, and further recycled. At present, this recycling technology is a relatively efficient recycling method for styrofoam recycling. Because the compression ratio of this styrofoam densifier is relatively high, for example, the compression ratio of GREENMAX styrofoam densifier can reach 90:1, which is a relatively high compression ratio in the entire recycling market, and it is also a standard that the factory ultimately uses in the recycling process.

"The only way you can effectively get rid of Styrofoam is taking it to the reuse center." De Leon stated. Austin homeowners must make an appointment with the Recycle & Reuse Drop-off Center in order to dispose of Styrofoam safely. Long, who has over 30 years of experience with the Austin Southwest Rotary Club, pointed out that many people may find this difficult. "We know this was a pain point, so we want to make it easy for people to properly dispose of the material," she continued. Project volunteers collect Styrofoam from local residents, clean it, and then travel to the recycling facility that same day to dispose of the plastic foam.

We should cherish and cooperate with communities that have a recycling system to make the use of styrofoam densifiers a virtuous cycle. Residents can remove the tape attached to the styrofoam waste in advance when sorting out waste styrofoam and clean up the dirt on it, which will reduce the resistance to subsequent recycling. The club's dedication to environmental conservation is reinforced by the Styrofoam Project. The club's vice president, Beth Long, came up with the concept and started working on it in October. More than 500 pounds of Styrofoam have been gathered by the organization since then.We believe that with the help of styrofoam densifier, recycling in the region will get better and better.