any use for a bunch of styrofoam?

john mcginnis wrote:I ground up trash styro using a DIY shredder. Don't do it inside tho! Coated the beads with white glue and packed it into a waxed form. The resulting 'brick' spanned the roof rafters with a small gap at the bottom of the cavity to bleed moisture. Still up there in the attic and works.

The downsides. Its labor intensive but if you have more time than money it works. Its messy, the low density of the beads fly everywhere. I suspect it won't work in large spans without reinforcement, the glue is the only thing holding it together.

Denise Cares wrote:What is the proper type glue to use to bond styrofoam to other surfaces like metal and concrete? I would like to use some pieces to insulate a garage door and the inside lower walls of greenhouse. Based on several comments here, it seems that would work.  I experimented with Elmer's and wood glue but both dissolve the styrofoam. How thick would it need to be for any appreciable insulating capacity? I guess a thin sheet can be glued to another sheet and so on till desired thickness is reached.  Nice to see there are ways to re-use this material. It takes up space and can be rather messy when broken due to static electricity.

William Bronson wrote:Someone on here posted about making a strong glue from styrofoam and acetone.
I am considering styro-concrete for the rear of my greenhouse.
I like the idea because it would be trapped.
Loose beads of styrofoam would ended up in the soil in 20 years, when my creations are torn down.

Doug Martin wrote:In the US, there are not many recycling facilities for Styrofoam unfortunately.  I researched it a long while back and essentially, it takes a LOT of styrofoam to justify recycling.  And I mean a LOT.  

Austin Resource Recovery collects it, melts it down into ropey-looking bricks, and sells it.  Also they let you take for free as much as you want if you need it for packing material.

See Hes wrote:To be honest, there are many ways mentioned how to use Styrofoam.

All have the same result:
The Styrofoam will degrade slowly and release a lot of bad gasses.

Styrofoam is as damaging like asbestos and should be handled by professional garbage companies who are specialized to convert it to low risk waste, without releasing too much gasses.

Sometimes things just work out the opposite if taken in own hands...

Many of us already releasing too much gasses using composter the wrong way by composting just everything, but forget to consider some "compostable" could be easily converted to :"feed able products" and if you feed these stuff to black soldier flies which are converted to fish food, they not release gasses as they don't fart...

But Styrofoam is just a high risk garbage difficult to convert.

Ian Aufin wrote:  Wondering if anyone has tried using the dissolved styrofoam goo as a wood sealer.  Curious if it would be useful in sealing and making leakproof aboveground wooden growbeds.  

Ian Aufin wrote:  Wondering if anyone has tried using the dissolved styrofoam goo as a wood sealer.  Curious if it would be useful in sealing and making leakproof aboveground wooden growbeds.  

Robin Wild wrote:

Ebo David wrote: I am not sure I would want to feed mealworms that have spent their life eating styrofoam to anything.  I might be wrong, but what is the halflife of the foam and all its additives?  Just say'n there is such a thing as forever chemicals, and getting it into the food chain.

Apparently it does fully break down, there is a little more research into this then there used to be. https://news.wsu.edu/news/2020/08/25/styrofoam-eating-mealworms-safe-dinner/

Dave Pennington wrote:

See Hes wrote:To be honest, there are many ways mentioned how to use Styrofoam.

You can UPcycle EPS (aka Styrofoam) into a perfectly safe and super-versatile building material ("EPIC")

Styrofoam, especially the kind that breaks apart into tiny spheres, is being used to reduce the amount of needed Portland cement.  Mixed at ratio of "1 part Cement, to three parts ground Styrofoam" and used as a building material, it insulates and protects from critters.  Here's an American who has a good YouTube channel to explain his methods -- though not sure it shows home building. https://youtu.be/pJ-5nFkOJAU?si=i_07KlQH_nVdMbvZ

Here's a different video showing surprising characteristics of this material in terms of flammability https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMPR8i4IWMA

However, homebuilding with what I've seen interchangeably called 'foamcrete' and 'styrocrete' -- and can be confused with 'aircrete'-- is apparently in common modern use in Russia. I don't speak Russian so used Google Translate to provide the keywords in Cyrillic.  This comparison video of different compositions video has English subtitles at the bottom.  Spoiler alert: additives including plasticizer, sand, and chopped fibers as used in fiberglass make it more structurally durable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SL71UwqeFE

Mike Fullerton wrote:The suggestions above for re-use (especially for insulation) are probably the best option, but there's one kinda weird use-case - albeit one more suited to a situation where you have a continuous flow of material to get rid of - feed it to mealworms.

Ian Aufin wrote:"Better Solution" depends on the desired end result.  I can't paint any surface with mealworm exhaust.

chaya duggan wrote:
I salvaged enough rigid blue and pink styrofoam from the landfill to insulate 2-8x12 sheds and my son's bedroom.
Small pieces for toys, cracks, home made coolers... and of course--GLUE.

It takes a LOAD of scraps to make the styro/acetate glue, but that is good stuff!

Dustin Rhodes wrote:it is commonly used as floats for aquaculture planting. not sure what drawbacks there would be, as i have no firsthand experience though...