Chatham County will stop recycling expanded polystyrene, a lightweight packaging material.

For more than a year, the county has launched a pilot project to recycle foam. Residents got off at the Chatham County Resource Conservation and Recycling Education Center on Eisenhower Avenue. Waysmart, which is locally owned and operated, worked with the county to condense the materials and prepare them for mass sales. But Waysmart's Robert Gadd (Robert Gadd) said that the bottom has already withdrawn from the market.

"Unfortunately, in the past year and a half, prices have dropped by 75% and we can get more recycled materials," he said.

Since the cost of the foam recycling machine is US$40,000, it is difficult to provide it with enough polystyrene packaging materials to make it worth the money, although Gadd found this kind of tedious work during the more stressful software development days after the working day. Purposeless work is a cure.   

Gadd and co-owner Katherine Guest collected approximately 10 tons of polystyrene and melted it into manageable “bricks”. This is a lot of packaging materials.

"We currently have less than 20,000 pounds, and about 75 are half full. So the amount is huge," he said. "But, you know, unfortunately, it's not worth $20,000, it's worth $4,000."

In a memo to the county manager on stopping the recycling of polystyrene, William Wright, the director of public works, wrote that staff are investigating the county’s grant and cost feasibility to take over the project. But he doesn't sound optimistic.

"Eligible individuals can receive subsidies, but this job requires trained employees to operate the equipment, store foam, and maintain the equipment, which will be expensive," he wrote.

Mary Landers is an environment and health reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Please call 912-655-8295 to contact her. Twitter: @MaryLandersSMN