Foam Recycling Information

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Dart Foam Recycling
CARE
(Cups Are REcyclable)
It’s in your hands
Dart recycles post-consumer foam
through several programs:
• Foam Collection Centers: Dart currently
operates fi fteen foam drop-off locations at our North
American and U.K. production plants for anyone who
wishes to recycle foam products. In addition we have
recycling centers at our production facilities in Michigan,
Pennsylvania, and Florida, U.S.A.; Ontario, Canada;
and Estado de Mexico, Mexico, capable of reprocessing
12 million pounds of foam products annually.
• Michigan County Program: In Dart’s home state
of Michigan, the company has built a comprehensive
infrastructure for recycling foam. Through the “Michigan
County Program,” Dart transports post-consumer foam
from drop-off locations to the company’s Michigan
recycling center for reprocessing. The program includes
drop-off sites in many counties, public schools and state
universities.
• Recycla-Pak: The Dart Recycla-Pak program
is an easy way for any business to recycle their
foam cups. Simply purchase a specially designed
Recycla-Pak corrugated collection bin and you can
start recycling foam cups.
The Recycla-Pak collection bin doubles as the
shipping carton used to return the collected cups for
recycling at a Dart or industry recycling facility. The
bin will be shipped
to you fl at and, after
a simple assembly,
you are ready to
begin collecting
used foam cups for
recy cling. Dur ing use,
a card board di vider
in the bin keeps
the collected cups
neatly stacked. A
pre-printed shipping
label attached to the
bin allows for easy
return of the cups
for recycling, freight
prepaid.
For more information and a list of recycling locations,
go to
www.dart.biz/recycle
The foundation of Dart’s recycling efforts is the
CARE (Cups Are REcyclable) program. CARE
provides larger, institutional customers with an
integrated, cost-effective way to collect, densify,
transport, and reprocess Dart foam products.
The centerpiece of the CARE program is Dart’s
DCH-260 densifi er, which can turn 8,000 foam
cups into a cylinder 15 inches tall, 15 inches in
diameter, and weighing about 40 pounds.
CARE has been recognized as “precisely
the sort of action(s) that we would like to
see adopted throughout corporate America,”
according to the director of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s Office
of Solid Waste. Resolutions passed by the
Michigan legislature and the Illinois House
of Representatives also have praised the
program’s cost -effective, proven method for
recycling Dart foam products.
For additional information, please contact the Dart Government Aff airs & Environment Department at:
www.dart.biz
Email: [e-mail]
or call 1-800-288-CARE
How Foam Recycling Works
1. When foam products have been collected and
baled or densifi ed, they are transported to a
recycling center.
2. The foam is inspected, manually sorted to remove
large contaminants, and placed onto a conveyer.
3. The conveyor transports the foam to a grinder,
where the material is broken into “fl uff .”
4. The fl uff is stored in a silo.
8. The pellets are packaged. They can then be
used, just like original raw material, to
manufacture again.
6. The mixed foam is sent to an extruder.
The extruder compresses and heats the fl uff
until it becomes molten (liquid).
7. The molten foam is then squeezed
through the pelletizer where a spinning
blade chops the foam into pellets.
The pellets are then cooled and placed in
a dryer to remove excess water.
9. The packages are shipped to manufacturers
of recycled-content products.
5. The fl uff is mixed with other foam.