Zhonghe City in Taipei County has solved its Styrofoam recycling headache and helped filled the local administration’s coffers courtesy of an NT$1 million (US$34,000) processing machine.
Bought two years ago for the city sanitation team, the machine melts Styrofoam down into smaller bricks saving on storage space and handling fees. This has tripled the material’s recycled price to NT$15 per kilogram.
The sanitation team collects about one tonne of Styrofoam per month, with the volume sometimes reaching as high as 1.4 tonnes. Given the bulkiness of the material, storage was creating problems for the workers.
“In the past, a 15-tonne truck was required to cart away only 200 kilograms of the material,” a sanitation team member said. “As a result, the vehicle would make several trips each day creating additional work for employees.”
“Since the recycling machine was introduced, the center has made significant savings by only having to call a truck once every eight to 10 days,” the team member said.
