Is a hot drink polystyrene cup causing cancer?

For many people, it's convenient and fashionable to have a cup of hot coffee and milk tea in cold weather. However, recently, some media reported that the material of these hot beverage cup lids is polystyrene, which releases styrene monomer when heated, and the styrene monomer may cause the immunity to decline and increase the risk of cancer. Can we buy hot drinks too?

The styrene monomer is an aromatic hydrocarbon and is an organic compound formed by replacing one hydrogen atom of ethylene with benzene. Polystyrene (PS) resin (resin is a collective term for high-molecular polymers) is a polymer synthesized by a free radical polycondensation reaction of styrene monomers and is a commonly used plastic. Polystyrene resins that are commonly used are made of polystyrene resin and processed by the corresponding manufacturing process.

The advantages of polystyrene are light weight, high strength, and low cost. Currently, it is widely used in food packaging, such as cup lids, plastic cups, and the like. In plastic packaging products, there are numbers with different marks to indicate different plastics. Among them, digital mark code “6” stands for polystyrene. If you see a number "6" on the lid, this cup lid is made of polystyrene.

Styrene monomer can also be used to process other plastics and rubbers in addition to polystyrene processing. For example, the US FDA allows styrene monomers to participate in the synthesis of up to 28 food contact materials. Many countries and regions including the United States, the European Union, Japan and China (Mainland, Taiwan) are allowed to use polystyrene as food packaging materials, and there are corresponding management measures.

Although the large usage of polystyrene, the polystyrene are disposable, which can easily become the white pollution, so foam cups recycling is very necessary to protect our environment. And then we can reuse it to do some other products.

People are struggling to find solutions to solve the polystyrene pollution

After years of dismally low recycling rates in the cities, people are getting more and more aware of the seriousness of the pollution and the importance of a clean and eco-friendly environment. People are struggling to find solutions to solve the problem. Many people are taking real actions and several environmental administrations around the world announced that communities and companies can recycle takeout containers, empty yogurt cups, CD cases and other hard plastic.

All of the practical actions are aimed at improving the cities’ residential polystyrene recycling rate, which has dropped in many years. Many cities have announced plans to expand recycling services and ban the certain plastic-foam containers. Some of these cities even passed legislation to protect the environment. People can put different categories of trash in the bins and aside space in the communities and beside the large apartment buildings.

Now, thanks to new optical technology that allows the primary recycling contractors to identify and separate rigid plastics by type, it is estimated that the new technology can spare several tons of waste each year from ending up in landfills. Taxpayers can expect to save much money a year in export costs.

people don’t have to dump the plastic waste in landfills and they are advised to rinse their waste plastic products before recycling them. They have struggled for decades to figure out what they can and cannot recycle. The reason why the recycling rates have been low is that glass bottles have given way to plastic ones, and newspaper sales have fallen, so recyclables weigh a lot less than they used to. Recycling rates are calculated by weight.

To bring people up to speed about which plastics are now recyclable, many cities plan to embark on a multi-platform marketing campaign, plastering the sides of sanitation trucks with posters advertising the changes and distributing to landlords new stickers to affix to their recycling bins.

Plastic waste does harm for people’s lives, so the process of recycling is expanded and the category of the recyclable plastic is also expanded. Many companies which have the technology and polystyrene recycling machines are contributing to the efficient recycling methods. 

Should polystyrene packaging be disabled or recycled?

The rapid development of the plastics industry, while helping to improve people’s living standards, has led to an increase in environmental problems, prompting more and more governments to ban the use of plastic bags and polystyrene (abbreviation: PS) food packaging materials. Other packaging products. Today, "plastic limit orders" have been implemented or proposed in many parts of the Asian continent, including India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

PS foam is known to be a lightweight petroleum-based plastic material that is commonly used in foaming products such as transportation services, disposable containers, disposable foam containers, and the like. Polystyrene is considered by many environmental groups as a major cause of beach and marine pollution.

However, Tang Saichen, a senior engineer at the China Light Industry Information Center, believes that PS foam plastic tableware is not the culprit of “white pollution” based on years of practical experience and research at home and abroad. It is non-toxic and harmless, safe and safe, and can be take such action as Styrofoam recycling. From the comprehensive analysis and evaluation of resources, energy, application, health performance, recycling and degradation performance and price, except that the raw materials are not from renewable resources, they are all harder to degrade after they are used, and all other items are better than all kinds of disposable snack utensils. Its cost performance is the best among all kinds of disposable tableware. From the life cycle evaluation of disposable snacks, PS foam plastic tableware is a green product that meets the principles of 3R (reduction, recycling, reuse). Therefore, under the current situation that the substitute technology and economic problems have not yet been completely solved, there are still many problems in application and sanitary performance, and the market has greater demand, PS foam plastic food packaging is undoubtedly the first choice for disposable food packaging. 

Although the prohibition of the use of PS packaging can stimulate potential employment opportunities, the value of foam cups recycling itself is inestimable. The broad application and lightweight properties of polystyrene itself show the inherent value and good economic benefits of polystyrene packaging.

Polystyrene foam can be recycled through foam recycling densifier

In the 1930s, German pharmacist Edward Simon discovered polystyrene. Today, we can see Styrofoam everywhere - cups of hot coffee, go-cartler containers to take home, leftovers, and summer picnic picnic dishes.

Styrofoam has good insulation and cushioning properties because it exceeds 90% air. This is where it is. 90% of the air means that it is ultra-lightweight and is a good thing in the world of product shipments, but ps foam cups recycling the world is not a benefit.

Densifiers are machines that use heat or pressure to compress loose styrofoam into blocks. Encryptors are available in a variety of sizes and configurations, from small background operations to large material recycling equipment, which is a good styrofoam disposal. The economical bricks can then be sold and transported to the processor in a cost-effective manner for extruding the material, granulating it and forming new products.

According to the Froth Recovery Coalition (FRC), "A 48-foot packed foamed polystyrene vehicle weighs only about 16,000 pounds, while a dense-density foamed polystyrene weighs 40,000 pounds." In other words, 2.5 Truck LTL and 1 vehicle compact block. OK, math is there, but any real world success?

Does this dense polystyrene bubble really turn into something new? absolute! To name just a few products: photo frames, building products, decorative molding, folder and packaging tape dispensers.

INTCO recycling is such a company that provides total solution of EPS recycling. It provides the polystyrene recycling densifier to compact polystyrene blocks or ingots, and then purchase them back to make pellets. These pellets can be used to make decoration frames and then sell them to the world. 

The countermeasures to prevent foaming polystyrene pollution

1. Countermeasures

The packaging is rationalized and suitable for reducing the amount and volume. At the time of the investigation and research, the author found that many packaging materials were designed unreasonably, used in large quantities, and were bulky, resulting in no small waste and polluting the environment. Therefore, I believe that when using packaging, the amount and volume should be appropriately reduced.

2, rationalized packaging

Rationalizing packaging is an effective way to prevent environmental pollution and reduce waste. When using packaging materials, we must consider methods to improve the physical properties of materials, use new material technologies, reduce the amount of use, improve the properties through measures such as compounding of packaging materials, and reduce costs. This can effectively save packaging materials and achieve rational recycling. .

3, reuse

Styrofoam is the most suitable of all plastics for reuse. It generally does not contain dyes, pigments, and other colorants and other additives, and these materials are basically all products made of polystyrene. This type of material uses even higher purity resin raw materials even through PS. It does not need to undergo a certain chemical treatment method like polyolefin foam and other products, and then it is recycled and used. In this case, the Styrofoam recycling trouble is also small. 

4. Energyization

At present, the recycling styrofoam packaging material waste is not very satisfactory. According to investigation and research conducted by relevant departments, except for some large cities that will specifically recycle and reuse foamed polystyrene, other Some cities and rural residents are still relatively weak in the awareness of recycling and reuse of this material.

Polystyrene and its products are widely used in various packaging materials

world. He is a thermoplastic and the output ranks third only to polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene. Polystyrene and its products are widely used in various packaging materials, advertising decoration, foam insulation materials, cushioning materials and disposable tableware. However, because PSF is mostly a one-time application, it is prone to waste and its product density is small, bulky, and not easily degradable. In addition, the toxic substances brought by the waste PS foam itself will pollute groundwater to destroy the soil structure and become white pollution. The necessity to recycle and use polystyrene and its products can not only reduce its environmental pollution, but also save resources and achieve economic benefits.

The melt extrusion molding Styrofoam recycling method does not require high equipment, simple process, easy operation, and small investment, and is suitable for general medium and small plants. It is the most mature and most widely used polystyrene foam recycling method. Melt-extrusion molding recycling method is mainly for the waste PSF melt granulation recovery, or dissolve the waste PSF with a solvent, and then through filtration, extrusion and separation of solvent and polystyrene resin. For example, in the process of remolding the polystyrene foam sheet by moulding method, the recycled resin is crushed into fine particles, preheated by steam, and then recompressed and recycled at a certain temperature and pressure to obtain a polystyrene foam sheet, in addition to the apparent density. Slightly higher than the new sheet. Due to the large amount of additives such as fillers and antioxidants in PSF, direct melt granulation will cause a decrease in performance and limit the scope of use, while the solvent recovery method can obtain relatively pure polystyrene raw materials.

The waste polystyrene foam is directly crushed and used as concrete lightweight aggregate. It is made of light-weight concrete material or external wall insulation board with cement and has sound-absorbing and heat-insulating effects. Because PSF is poor in compatibility with cement and poor in dispersibility, surface modification of PSF is required to enhance compatibility. ShinC et al. use waste foamed polystyrene as a raw material to produce sub-micron polystyrene fibers of about 500 nm by electrospinning technology. The nonwoven fabric made of this fiber has excellent filtration performance.

EPS is the perfect packaging option for almost industrial products

EPS is the perfect packaging option for almost any high-value, heavy-duty product that completely protects against and at the risk of shipping and handling and provides complete protection for industrial products. Covers everything from fragile pharmaceutical products to electronic components, consumer electronics, toys, and gardening or garden products, to all or even more of those who reach their destinations - and household consumption is typically found in the EPS's fine packaging to improve the conditions.

EPS can be designed to fully cooperate with automated production lines, including product packaging, so EPS packaging is well suited for integration into production systems. The EPS packaging system is the best choice for cost, versatility and efficiency because workers are easy to handle, have no sharp edges or staples, and have the same perfect functioning as precision machines.

EPS packaging is the best way to maintain the freshness of any food, including fish and shellfish, meat, fruit and ice cream. Perfect protection avoids danger, damage and waste at different stages of manufacture and transportation. EPS wrappers ensure that, every day, many different foods are delivered to retailers or end-consumers in good condition. Food safety is important, but poorly guarded or poorly insulated products may not be up to standard, posing a serious health risk to consumers and may also cause serious waste problems for supermarkets or food suppliers. This is an important ecological benefit that EPS can provide. It saves food, reduces food waste, and ensures food safety.

However, the expanded polystyrene are disposable, which can easily become the white pollution, so Styrofoam recycling is very necessary to protect our environment. And then we can reuse it to do some other products.