Styrofoam recycling, already scarce in the region, takes another hit

After years of providing a free polystyrene recycling service for 10 northwest suburban locations, Ken Santowski recently announced he was shutting it down. He could no longer afford to store truckloads of foam before hauling them to faraway processing plants, he said.

One Wisconsin company began to charge him money to accept the material. Another plant in North Aurora took the foam for free, but had scheduling issues. Santowski, 56, announced in July that he couldn`t make it work. He was waiting weeks before landing a drop-off appointment, which meant turning semitrailers from his small business to storing facilities.

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Ken Notes: This is too bad and actually a problem in with many recyclable materials... I would like to see a national packaging tax assessed per ton on all packaging. This money would then help fund recycling and landfill across the US. I served on Wisconsin`s recycling board and most do not understand the complexity if the issues...