RECYCLING CENTER

A Home for Foam Website

On November 12, 2020, Tiny House Community Development started Styrofoam™ recycling (#6 polystyrene foam) in Greensboro, NC. Foam recycling starts with a densification machine which turns the foam into ignots and then is sold to recycle vendors.

This project represents a collaborative effort between four non-profit organizations:
Emerging Ecology, Environmental Stewardship Greensboro, Greensboro Beautiful, and Tiny House Community Development (THCD).

We are no longer collecting Styrofoam at 1310 West Gate City Blvd. in Greensboro. Visit us right down the street on the same side at 360 West Gate City Blvd. in Greensboro. Or please donate at one of the locations listed in our Current Drop-Off Locations list to the right of this column.

Thank you for your support!

Current Drop-Off Locations:

First United Methodist Church

1630 Westbrook Ave, Elon

Tiny House Community Hope Center:

360 West Gate City Blvd, Greensboro

Recycled Goods

4118 Spring Garden St, Greensboro

Faith Presbyterian

6309 W. Friendly Ave, Greensboro

First Presbyterian

617 N. Elm St, Greensboro

First Lutheran Church

6300 W. Friendly Ave, Greensboro

Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Library

1420 Prince Park Dr, Greensboro

Irving Park United Methodist Church

1510 West Cone Blvd, Greensboro

Alamance Presbyterian Church

4000 Presbyterian Road, Greensboro

High Point Public Library

901 N. Main St, High Point

Ingleside Landfill

3001 Ingleside Dr, High Point

earth day _ LaBour Park recycle foam.jpg

OUR PROCESS

1. Verify that the material is clean and free from tape and labels.

2. Feed the material into the densifier. The foam is ground up, heated, and extruded.

3. Shape the extruded material into manageable bricklike ingots.

4. The ingots are then stacked on shipping pallets for shipping to manufacturers who will start the material on its next journey of usefulness.

Residents and institutions with foam can use the two drop-off bins conveniently located behind the THCD facility. Street signs indicate where to turn off W. Gate City Blvd. using the marked driveway between the two buildings. This center accepts both clean food service containers – cups, egg cartons, and take-out boxes – as well as packaging materials used for coolers and shipping fragile products. Materials placed in the bins are densified into ingots, which can be manufactured into a variety of materials. The drop-off location is open 24/7 and is monitored and emptied regularly by the THCD staff and volunteers.

The foam (1) densification process produces ingots that are in a variety of useful products. Foam material is crushed, heated, extruded, and formed into ingots (2). Manufacturers grind the ingots into small pieces and mix them with specific additives. This mixture is heated again and extruded into materials that create picture frames, molding, and other building materials (3). The densification process in Greensboro uses a RecycleTech XT200E machine to pulverize, heat, and extrude raw material delivered to the drop-off location.