Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Exchange Network for Expanded Polystyrene Bio-Shipping Containers
EPA Grant Number: SU835731Title: Exchange Network for Expanded Polystyrene Bio-Shipping Containers
Investigators: Benson, Craig H. , Middlecamp, Catherine , Lindstrom, Timothy , Hicks, Andrea , Markley, Andrew , Kooistra, Frank , Bradshaw, Sabrina , Baumann, Emily , Budke, Katelyn , Ottmann, Jared , Walsh, Jenna , Marten, Brooke , Cupp, David , Liang, Lulu , Conradt, Aaron , Markel, Tyler , Tijoe, Marco , McCall, Benjamin , Bartels, Bart , Harris, Olivia , Panganiban, Christy , Gatdula, Aaron , Peterson, Chelsea , Delgado, Maria , Bizot, Ray , Webb, Olivia , Tirakian, Colin , Xu, Hantao , Grego, Lorenzo , Juarez, Diana , Valko, Phil , Hage, Cassandra
Institution: University of Wisconsin - Madison
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Phase: II
Project Period: September 1, 2014 through August 31, 2016 (Extended to August 31, 2017)
Project Amount: $88,111
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet - Phase 2 (2014) Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Challenge Area - Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Challenge Area - Chemical Safety , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
This project centered on a waste problem on university campuses: shipping boxes and containers made of expanded polystyrene (EPS). These lightweight white foam containers commonly are referred to as Styrofoam™, although technically, this is an incorrect use of the term. These boxes are used to ship items for many units on a university campus, including hospitals, research laboratories, agricultural stations, and food services.
The project had three goals: (1) to explore options for reusing and recycling EPS shipping containers on university campuses. (2) to provide metrics and protocols that will be useful to other universities. Both of these goals were accomplished, and (3) to extend the work to other large research universities.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
During Phase I of this project, our team addressed the first goal, setting up an EPS container collection program on the UW-Madison campus for analysis, reuse, and recycling of this material. The EPS containers were aggregated and delivered to a local polystyrene recycling company about 10 miles from Madison.
During Phase II of this project, our team expanded EPS recycling on the UW-Madison campus. In addition, the project team launched the implementation of the system we developed and optimized in Phase I at two other universities: Washington University in St Louis and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Phase II also provided life cycle analysis metrics to answer two research questions: Do EPS shipping containers have an inherent value that can generate a long-term revenue stream in order to reduce the cost of these collection programs? Can a robust life cycle assessment help to better evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of different EPS end-of-life disposal scenarios? The life cycle analysis metrics obtained as part of Phase II will constitute part of a doctoral thesis to be completed in 2019.
In 2017, dissemination of the project results was launched. One peer-reviewed paper will go to print in the February 2018 issue of Sustainability: The Journal of record. A second paper is in preparation for the Journal of Cleaner Production. Team members from all three institutions joined to present a panel discussion on EPS waste at the 2017 national conference of AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The project has been nominated to appear in the March/April 2018 issue of APPA’sFacilities Managermagazine that will highlight innovative sustainability programs and services at colleges and universities.
Conclusions:
At UW-Madison, we have created a sustained EPS recycling system. What started as a project (“Boxable”) has now become institutionalized; that is, EPS collection and recycling have become part of the standard practices of campus services employees.
Like any good project, this one has raised avenues for future exploration. Currently, the most pressing objective is to complete a life cycle assessment (LCA) in order to evaluate the environmental impacts as well as the economic tradeoffs of alternatives to landfilling post-consumer EPS. We anticipate that this LCA will guide future decisions on this campus as well as inform decision making at other institutions that are interested in exploring EPS recycling and reuse programs of their own.
We also continue to explore the extent to which our findings are scalable to universities across the country. Our two partner institutions, Washington University (St. Louis) and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have implemented EPS recycling programs. In this report, we have included the most recent data from these universities.
We now are disseminating our findings and plan to continue doing so. For example, our presentations at the 2017 AASHE national conference (see previous section) drew interest from other research universities concerned about mitigating EPS waste. Several of these institutions have launched EPS recycling initiatives of their own to varying degrees of success, while others were just beginning to explore solutions to the problem. Based upon our collective experiences and shared interests, we see encouraging signals about both the scalability and widespread implementation of these kinds of programs at institutions of higher education.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 3 publications | 1 publications in selected types | All 1 journal articles |
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Type | Citation | ||
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Marten B, Hicks A. Expanded polystyrene life cycle analysis literature review:an analysis for different disposal scenarios. Sustainability:The Journal of Record 2018;11(1):29-35. |
SU835731 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
reuse, recycling, expanded polystyrene, insulated shipping containers, biotech, campus initiativesRelevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractP3 Phase I:
Exchange Network for Expanded Polystyrene Bio-Shipping Containers | Final ReportThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.