Grantee Research Project Results
2015 Progress Report: Exchange Network for Expanded Polystyrene Bio-Shipping Containers
EPA Grant Number: SU835731Title: Exchange Network for Expanded Polystyrene Bio-Shipping Containers
Investigators: Middlecamp, Catherine , Markley, Andrew , Martin, Brooke , Baumann, Emily , Budke, Katelyn , Cupp, David , Liang, Lulu , Lindstrom, Timothy , Yim, Sarah
Current 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 Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2014 through August 31,2015
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:
Biological research on a university campus depends on the timely delivery of temperature sensitive reagents. The most common way to ship these reagents is in expanded polystyrene (EPS, aka StyrofoamTM) containers. Typical reagent containers have three components: an exterior cardboard box, an interior EPS container, and freezer gel packs. The cardboard box is readily recycled or reused. The freezer gel packs, if present, get reused or discarded as waste. The interior EPS container is the object of this study.
However, nearly all of these interior EPS containers have a single use; that is, once the container is opened, the container shifts from a critical asset (protective package) to a liability (campus waste).
Handling the EPS container in a mixed-stream recycling program is cost prohibitive. Consequently, virtually no insulated shipping containers are recycled, resulting in significant waste and lost value in the biotech industry.
During Phase I of our project, our team set up an EPS container collection program on the UW-Madison campus for analysis, reuse, and recycling of this material. EPS material was aggregated and delivered to Uniek, a local company that creates polystyrene picture frames.
Our team also encouraged the reuse of EPS containers locally through contacts we made with local biotech companies, small businesses, and the University surplus store. For example, the St. Vincent de Paul thrift stores were willing to take EPS containers. They were able to sell these items quickly; however, we suspect that the buyers eventually discarded the EPS containers in the trash and they subsequently were sent to the landfill. So while this extended the use of the boxes, it did not solve the problem of disposal.
The objective of Phase II of this project is to maximize EPS recycling and reuse on the UW-Madison campus and to implement the system we developed and optimized in Phase I at two other research universities. We intended to show that the success of the UW-Madison operation was not extraordinary and that this program could be replicated at any large research institution.
Is there an inherent value of the reusable EPS shipping containers that can generate a long-term revenue stream in order to reduce the cost of these collection programs? Can we provide a robust lifecycle assessment to evaluate environmental impact? These questions still remain unanswered. We will continue our work in 2016 and request a no-cost extension to continue as well into 2017.
Progress Summary:
- We have named our project "Boxable" and designed a logo.
-Through better collection protocols, our Boxable team increased the efficiency of the EPS collection system on campus. Collection costs were reduced by more than 50%. This was accomplished by changing the method of collection, aggregating the material on site rather than at a central location.
- In collecting about ten bags (1-2 cubic yards) of EPS from campus buildings, each week we are diverting approximately a semi-truck full of EPS each month from the landfill. The EPS currently is going to Uniek, a local polystyrene recycling company.
- Student workers (Emily and Caitlyn) designed and sent a follow-up survey to campus building managers to send to their building occupants. The purpose of the survey was to measure awareness, acceptance, and usage of the program. See Appendix A for findings from the 2015 survey.
- Starting in 2013, we launched conversations with Promega, a biotech company close to Madison. Our hope was that Promega would reuse the boxes, if these boxes were returned to them. In 2015, Promega picked up about 100 boxes that we collected here on campus. We learned in 2016 that Promega was recycling these boxes rather than reusing them, so we discontinued this practice. Also, we learned that in 2015, Promega discontinued their mail-back box reuse program.
- In the previous academic year (2014-2015), our team members produced an EPS recycling and reuse program implementation manual. This document is freely available to programs at other universities. See Appendix B for cover page.
- In the previous academic year (2014-2015), we contacted our campus Department of Information Technology to create the website for the Boxable project. However, the final cost estimate was too high to complete within the budget of this grant. As a workaround, we are upgrading the website we currently have at the UW Office of Sustainability.
- Our Boxable team created a business plan for operating the EPS collection program without external funding, and used this plan to compete in the UW-Madison School of Business Burrill Business Competition. We earned an honorable mention prize. See Appendix B for the Executive Summary.
- In 2015, we identified the LCA software license that we wished to purchase to perform an assessment of the environment implications of our recycling and reuse program. In February, we purchased this software license with P3 grant funding. Please stay tuned!
- As part of this grant, we are collaborating with University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC) and Washington University, St. Louis. We were not able to purchase capital equipment for them (a densifier) under the terms of this grant; nonetheless, the collaborations have proved to be useful:
- Washington has started its collection program.
- UIUC is waiting on the installation of a densifier,
We are able to support their efforts by the purchase of supplies that they request to outfit their collection sites. They are using our "blueprint" in setting up their programs, learning from us what worked and what did not.
Future Activities:
At UW-Madison, we are well on the way to creating a robust EPS recycling and reuse system. Even so, we've encountered unexpected obstacles, including those because of our own campus protocols. As might be expected, our work is raising new questions as quickly as it answers them.
At present, one of the pressing questions is how to get a life cycle analysis that can be used to guide future decisions. Those on our campus want to know actual costs as well as environmental costs, before they decide to permanently allocate resources to an EPS recycling and reuse program. We expect that the use of professional LCA software will help us.
We are testing the extent to which our findings can be scalable to universities across the country. In 2016, we hope finish implementing EPS recycling programs at our two partner universities and obtain data from these universities so we can evaluate their performance and outcomes.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 3 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
reuse, recycling, expanded polystyrene, insulated shipping containers, biotech, exchangeRelevant 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.