New Hampshire town receives PS recycling grant

Town of Gilford, New Hampshire, has received a $50,000 grant from the Falls Church, Virginia-based Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Foam Recycling Coalition to add a Foam Cycle system to its solid waste center. The Gilford Solid Waste Center (GSWC) is a source-separated facility.

The Gilford Department of Public Works learned about an initiative from the New Hampshire Plastics Work Group and several district governors of Rotary clubs to create a hub-and-spoke system throughout New England to collect and recycle polystyrene (PS). The Gilford Foam Recycling Center will have an expanded service region to northern New England. There are about 125 communities and 530,000 residents within 50 miles of the location.

“The GSWC is frequently asked by residents if foam can be recycled,” says Meghan Theriault, public works director for the Town of Gilford. “We are proud to become the first hub in the state to collect and densify foam for recycling, helping to divert the material from landfills, save money on trash disposal costs and potentially generate revenue for the community.”

According to a news release from the Foam Recycling Coalition, the coalition’s $50,000 funding will assist GSWC with the purchase and installation of a PS foam recycling system, including a foam densifier, at the GSWC location. GSWC will accept loose PS foam, both rigid and food packaging, on-site during normal business hours. Rotary clubs also are planning to work together to create numerous spoke locations for foam to be dropped off or collected at organized events. The Foam Recycling Coalition reports that these clubs will handle the logistics of delivering the collected foam to a hub location, such as Town of Gilford, where it will be densified into ingots to be sold to end markets for manufacturing new products.

“The Town of Gilford is a great example of a leading community listening to residents and working with surrounding communities to create a solution for recycling foam,” says Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, which oversees the Foam Recycling Coalition. “By Gilford taking the first step, we hope to see other communities throughout New England get inspired and join their efforts as either a hub or spoke to divert polystyrene foam from landfills and into new products.”

The grant is made possible through contributions to the Foam Recycling Coalition, which focuses exclusively on increased recycling of postconsumer foam polystyrene. Its members include Americas Styrenics; CKF Inc.; Chick-fil-A; Dart Container Corp.; Dyne-A-Pak; Genpak; Ineos Styrolution America LLC; Pactiv Evergreen; and Republic Plastics.

The Town of Gilford is the 24th grant recipient to receive this funding since 2015. According to the Foam Recycling Coalition, more than 6 million residents in the U.S. and Canada are as a result of these grants.