If you have unused styrofoam coolers or packaging lying around that once protected your new TV, clothes dryer or other household products, take them to Gold Circuit E-Cycling in Agawam for free recycling.
The facility is at 277 Silver Street, around the corner from Geissler’s on RT 75. It’s open Monday – Friday, 12 pm to 3 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to Noon.
“The styrofoam must be white, clean and free of labels and tape,” said owner Matt Pronovost. “I can’t stress that enough. And we don’t accept styrofoam plates, cups and food containers or packing peanuts, which often are multi-colored,” he said.
Pronovost operates a 480-volt extrusion machine. It’s equipped with a conveyor that feeds styrofoam into a screw augur, which grinds and melts it. The machine forces out a continuous length of gelatin-like polystyrene about the diameter of a fat kielbasa, which drops into a one-foot square eight-inch deep metal box. It folds onto itself like soft serve ice cream pouring into a cup while it fills the open-topped box. After it cools, workers remove the solid mass from the box and stack it on pallets. Each block weighs about 65 lbs. Watch the process here: bit.ly/48kcMzI.
Pronovost sells the blocks to manufacturers of plastic household molding and inexpensive picture frames that you might find at Walmart.