
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993                   TAG: 9311250355
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV8   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                 LENGTH: Medium

RADVA`S RECYCLING FINDS NEW USE FOR OLD PACKAGING

Some folks recycle their Christmas ribbons and bows from one year to the next. A few even reuse wrapping paper. But until fairly recently, there's been little use for the polystyrene packaging materials - the peanuts and foam blocks that frequently cushion delicate gifts like electronic items, computers and glassware.

Sometimes, it gets saved, in case the item needs to be returned for repairs, but more often, it just winds up in the landfill.

Since April 1992, however, RADVA Corporation, a polystyrene products manufacturer, has been collecting polystyrene labeled PS-6 for recycling or reuse.

``Last year, we diverted 300 tons to recycling that would have gone to landfills,'' said Everette Davidson, RADVA's polystyrene recycling coordinator. He expects to beat that figure handily this year.

RADVA's biggest consumer of castoff polystyrene is a North Carolina firm that processes and reuses the foam for bean-bag furniture. ``Regrind'' polystyrene material also can be used by builders to fill construction blocks for insulation and by nurseries to aerate potting soil.

Davidson said the foam also can be remanufactured into high-density polystyrene plastic, to make such consumer items as tape cassettes and disposable plastic eating utensils.

The company's public polystyrene collection point shares space at the Radford City Recycling Center on 17th Street, where recyclables of all sorts may be dropped off. RADVA donated the use of the land to the city last year.

During the holiday season, RADVA will set up four additional temporary sites around the New River Valley to collect foam packaging from holiday gifts. From Dec. 20 through Jan 15, collection boxes will be set up at Wal Mart stores in Christiansburg and Pulaski and at Kmart stores in Fairlawn and Christiansburg, Davidson said.

The company also accepts clean polystyrene egg cartons, foam packing peanuts, disposable dinnerware and food packaging. ``And I have to stress clean,'' Davidson said. ``The main idea is to keep the recycling stream as pure as possible.''

Too much contamination - from incompatible materials or from food scraps, for example - can mean having to dump an entire load of material into the landfill - just what the program's trying to avoid.

Davidson said his company has been recycling polystyrene internally from its start some 30 years ago. In 1991, RADVA joined 80 other foam packaging manufacturers and raw materials suppliers in forming the Association of Foam Packaging Recyclers. Their theme: ``Recycle expanded polystyrene foam: It's part of the package.''

Now, in addition to collecting polystyrene from the public, the firm ``backhauls'' packing materials from its own deliveries and picks up foam from other companies as well, including Tetra in Christiansburg.

``We have the responsibility as a company that manufactures polystyrene to recycle it,'' Davidson said. Practical economics impose constraints on just how far the firm can go, however. ``Recycling costs money,'' he said. ``People think you make money, but you don't. You end up just trying to break even.''

Davidson said few municipalities have taken the initiative to collect polystyrene foam, perhaps because the market is limited. RADVA's polystyrene recycling program employs seven people, including truck drivers.

Davidson said he hopes that, as recycling and recycling awareness grow, the market will become rich enough to allow more pickup points, and that people start routinely recycling foam packinging and other polystyrene foam items.

by CNB