Don’t throw away that styrofoam! St. Vincent de Paul will take it.

Mountains of white packaging foam pile up faster than usual during the holiday season, and curbside recycling won’t take it, but St. Vincent de Paul does.

Most people know St. Vincent de Paul in Lane County as a place to donate furniture or to shop for secondhand goods. What many don’t realize is that the nonprofit operates one of the region’s most important recycling programs.

“The primary goal of the styrofoam recycling program is to divert this material from landfills,” said Chance Fortune, marketing and communications coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul in Lane County. “Styrofoam can take thousands of years to decompose once it is landfilled, so we capture it before it can get to that point and send it back into the industry to be reused. This is a service we provide to the community, often at an expense to us.”

In a facility that also processes mattresses, St. Vincent de Paul’s specialized machine transforms the bulky material into dense blocks destined for new life in other products.

What is styrofoam?

While people commonly refer to all plastic foam products as “styrofoam,” the word is a brand name for a product created by Dow Chemical Company.

Both the brand-name product and the generic plastic foam used in cups, takeout containers and packaging are made from polystyrene, a petroleum-based plastic. Plastic foam was invented as a replacement for rubber used as insulation during World War II, when rubber was in short supply. It is cheap and easy to make, but its main ingredient, a chemical known as styrene, is a carcinogen.

In 2024 alone, St. Vincent de Paul recycled approximately 107,000 pounds — 53 tons — of the material. If spread across Autzen Stadium’s playing field, a year’s worth of incoming foam would stack 5 to 6 feet deep.

The density transformation is equally remarkable. Plastic foam is about 95% air. Staff estimate a 40-to-1 compression ratio, meaning 80 to 100 truckloads of incoming foam becomes just two to three truckloads of densified material ready for market.

Not all plastic foam is created equal for recycling purposes. St. Vincent de Paul accepts clean, white foam marked with recycling No. 6. They can’t process colored foam, rubbery varieties, food containers or anything contaminated with tape or debris.

The material must be as clean and dry as possible, because moisture interferes with the process. Residents can drop off eligible foam at any St. Vincent de Paul donation site throughout Lane County.

How is it recycled?

The transformation happens when a worker loads the foam into a hopper. It moves up a ramp where an auger feeds it into a heating chamber. Inside, rotating fingers break the foam into smaller pieces while heat melts the material.

The machine extrudes logs of compressed polystyrene like toothpaste squeezing out of a tube. A worker wearing protective gloves cuts it as it exits the machine, tamps it into a rectangular-shaped ingot and then stacks it into blocks.

Each finished block weighs about 50 pounds. Workers stack the blocks on pallets that, when full, weigh 2,250 pounds and stand several feet high.

The operation runs daily, with staff monitoring what goes into the machine. They’ll receive the highest price for foam with little to no contamination from the wrong types of foam or colored foams. But even with an uncontaminated load, there’s little to no profit.

“The reality is that styrofoam is cheap and that is why it is used so widely,” Fortune said. “In fact, we operate this program at a financial loss. Many recycling initiatives are not immediately profitable, and so the stores’ operations have double duty to support both our human service mission and our environmental one.”

The compressed blocks ship to processing facilities, primarily in California, then internationally to China, where they’re transformed into new products. Shipments from St. Vincent de Paul could become picture frames, outdoor furniture, park benches or coat hangers.

Ready to donate?

Anyone can drop off a grocery cart-sized amount of clean white plastic foam at any St. Vincent de Paul donation center at no cost. Those with a larger amount of the material can donate with a nominal fee of up to $12. St. Vincent de Paul can also arrange to drive to your location and pick up larger amounts. Learn more about St. Vincent de Paul’s plastic foam recycling program here.