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Part Number: FREE-STYRO

Three Free Styrofoam Blocks

Availability: Sorry, this item is sold out. No ETA available at this time.

We accumulate a great deal of styrofoam packing materials from computer monitor and case boxes. These are the white foam styrofoam materials used to protect the computer products from shipping damages. After the products are used or delivered to clients, these foams are left behind. We are seeking a way to reuse or recycle them instead of throwing them to the trash and landfills. Styrofoam is not biodegradable. Here are a few ways we found so far.

(1) We have broken/torn them into smaller pieces manually and use them as packing materials for shipping. However, the process is not efficient, time-consuming and the resulting pieces do not look too consistent or professional. We would like to find a way to consistently cut or shred the styrofoam into one or half inch size chuncks or peanuts. We bought a hot wire cutter after searching online and on ebay, but it's not too much faster than shredding/tearing by hands. We thought about buying an electric chipper shredder from Home Depot. However, we are concerned that the heat generated by the high-speed cutting knife may melt the styrofoam and block the passage. Has any one tried this? If you think it will work, please send us an email to information@directron.us. On behalf of the environment, we thank you!

(2) We contacted several vendors in Houston area who supply us with the regular styro foam packing peanuts. One of them is willing to pick these up for free and recycle them. However, they are very slow in picking these up - only one small truck per week depending on their routes and schedules. With this speed and our rate of generating such styrofoaming material, it will take months before we can get rid of them all.

The blocks are taking up too much of our warehouse space. You can now imagine our problem. That's why we created this page to offer a few other ways to get rid of these styrofoam in a responsible way.

We are now offering these styrofoam blocks for free for any one who is willing to pay labor/freight to pick them up or have them shipped somewhere.

Here are a few potential usages for the styrofoam:

"Schools or churches would find them usefull as art projects or decorating a theater, local, college, or professional, could use them for set."

"Blocks of styrofoam can be used for several different things depending on size, shape & density (pounds per cubic foot). Using imagination & a little glue, you can make furniture, room/space dividers, castles & spaceships for kids small & large"

If we can shred the styrofoam into small particles, they may be used for gardening. Again the question is how to break the blocks into small pieces in an industrial way?

Styrofoam can also be used for insulation, crafting, floats, containers, constructions, molding, etc. The application is almost endless. The question is how to cut them efficiently and professionally? Maybe, someone can invent and market such a product. We are sure we are not the only company that is having this problem. Would someone make a styrofoam shredder?

We are seeking help. Do you have any idea? Do you have a suggestion? Please send it to information@directron.us.

If you are interested in getting some of the styrofoam for free, please place an order with this item and pay the shipping cost or stop by our location to pick them up. We do not accept orders by email.

Responses We Received

Richard M.: I am looking into it for some materials we have been collecting. Did you ever find a machine that would cut up the block styrofoam into usable packaging "cubes" or peanuts? --

Directron: No, we haven't. Do you think we should give the wood chipper a try? We were afraid that the heat on the blade may melt the foam.

Richard M.: I would be concerned that it would just turn the styrofoam into millions of little bits and it would go all over the place. But it you have access to one, you could try it. You might want to do it indoors, with a few small pieces, and be able to clean up.

I have no experience with this, however, and am just trying to recycle or reuse some styrofoam computer packaging that we have been accumulating.

In my area, there is a place called the "BFI Recyclery." The local municipalities pick up styrofoam and all other recyclables mixed together. The Recyclery separates it all. They have these in other states too. I am in CA.

You might check to see if there is something like this in your area. Try a web search. Where are you located?

I imagine that you are like me, in that you hate the idea of just putting it all in the landfill.

I wish there was a "styrofoam cubing machine" that would dice it up into neat 1 inch cubes to use for packing.

See this link. There is a question half way down the page about using a chipper for plastic.

http://www.mackissic.com/Answers.htm

"Please DO NOT attempt to chip/shred plastic or styrofoam in your MacKissic unit. These materials can melt from the heat created by the machines and cause damage."

This machine seems to do what we want. The larger ones just seem to shred to reduce the volume, but I am checking.

I would be concerned that just volume reducing then putting in the trash would eliminate any chance of recycling the materials.

http://www.demandfoamcutting.com/recyk.html

"Please review our Recyk machine at www.demandfoamcutting.com. Cost is $1885 USD plus shipping. It is a low production foam cuber. For higher production we recommend our Foam Gobler or a StyroCompactor."

Directron: We are interested in your foam cutter as well. We wonder how fast your table cutter is. For example, in average, how long does it take to fill up the plastic bag? Or how many cubic feet can it handle per minute or per hour (capacity)? We don't want something that's too slow. The faster it is, the less labor it would cost us.

Do you have a price for the 36"x36" machine yet?

DemandFoamCutting: "Our Recyk is a "low capacity" cuber. It cubes 1 lb EPS foam at a rate of a about 3 feet per minute. We do not have pricing yet on our new 36" x 36" cuber. Will advise when it comes available. Also, be aware, cubers give off smoke.

"If you are looking at speed, recommend purchasing a grinding system. They are much faster and used more in production settings. We currently offer the Gobbler that costs about $9,850 to your door and I have attached information on our new Commercial Grinder which is about $18,000 to your door."

I'm interested, what are the dimensions? I'm actually looking for solid blocks, but maybe I can combine a number of what you have and cover in chicken wire and coat to create a solid block. --Ray W.

Dimensions: 21 x 18.5 x 8 inches in outer dimentions.

would like to receive some I am working on a class project and it would really help my plan is to design a 3-D model of Oxford University. So if possible I would like to receive some, I don�t need allot just maybe a box full I will be happy with whatever I receive and make the most of it all. --Martha V.

You mentioned that using shredded blocks as packing material, but that they did not look professional. However, many people would jump to discount their purchases if the recycled foam was used, thus saving on your costs of packing peanuts and disposable of the foam (I know that garbage collection is not cheap).

Hello,I just came across your website while looking for some styrofoam for an art project. I am a college student at VCU's School Of the Arts and was wondering if you were still offering free styrofoam blocks? I am looking for something around 6' tall and any width that is at least 12" wide. I would be more than happy to pay for any shipping charges and hope to hear from you soon!

I am having the same problem that you were/are having with your styrofoam- I run a retail whitegoods business in Australia, and I was wondering if you found a solution to your problem, and if so,are you able to point me in the right direction?

hello! i searched the web looking for info on styrofoam and how to get it etc, when i stumbled over your site.. i can understand your problem.. what im looking for is large blocks of styrofoam i can use for my car, cause im planning on making a full bodykit. the idea is to shape styrofoam the way i want my bodykit, and then make a mould of the styrofoam model to make a glassfiber bodykit.. however, i live in norway, and i was wondering what it would cost to send large pieces of styrofoam over here (if you have any). the blocks i need would have to be about 1 meter x 0,5 meter x 0,5 meter roughly..

My name is Josh and my theatre group is doing the musical "Into The Woods" this summer. Obviously, it takes place in the woods. I though that if we were able to get large enough pieces of styrofoam, that we could cut out the shape of a tree. This would no only save us money and time, but also it is an easy take down. I was wondering how large are the largest blocks that you give away?

I am a high school marching band director looking for very large blocks of styrofoam that I can use in my field show this fall.

Do you have any very large blocks, chunks, cubes, etc. of styrofoam that you want ot get rid of? If so how large? Our goal is to convert them into large rocks by reshaping and painting them. They would have to be large enough to actually hide a person behind.

Please let me know if you have anything like this and if so, we may be very interested in working out something with you.

I recently ran across your website and saw a page that indicated that you were having trouble disposing of your scrap EPS or styrofoam material. I would like to offer my company's services to help you remedy your recycling costs and landfill expenses. My company, Phoenix Recycling, has over 30 years of experience in the plastic recycling industry. We are constantly developing and adopting new technologies that allow us to reprocess various materials that many companies, unfortunately, are currently sending to the landfill.

We are located in Columbus, OH. If you have any means of moving this material to our facility, we would be glad to take and possibly even be able to absorb a portion of the cost of freight ourselves.

Please let me know if I can help your company resolve this problem and thank you for being environmentally responsible.

We live on Lake Norman in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. We love to hang out in the water on various rafts and floats, but our Weimeraner goes crazy when we are in the water and she is on the shore. I think she worries about us, so she swims out to "save" us but her paws end up being like meat grinders because she wants to join us on our rafts. So we need to figure out a way for her to join us.

My thought is to take a thin piece of plywood to built "jewel" her own raft. I'm thinking that your styrofoam would be the perfect solution to enabling the plywood to hold her weight. I've searched the web for "dog rafts" but I haven't really found anything. I'm not sure how many pieces it would take to cover a sheet of plywood. What are your thoughts?

If your packing material is in fact Styrofoam (a registered trademark) you may wan to contact someone through the Dow website about the possibility of recycling the material into other products.

Hi, my name is Kyle, I am 12 and am interested in receiving a small amount of free Styrofoam for crafting and modelling purposes. If it is possible to send me a small amount, not too much but enough to craft with, please send it to 12 Brandon Road, xxxxxxx, England.

I may be interested in some of your excess styrofoam. I assume it is in Houston, TX? Generally, how much do you have at one time to dispose of at one time?

I was interested to know if you still give away free styrofoam that you do not need anymore. I am looking for styrofoam blocks to make Halloween tombstones with. I would like them to be at least 2" thick up to 5" or 6" thick. At least 24" tall. 15" wide. Bigger is always better.

If you have anything like this, I would be happy to take it off your hands. Just let me know. Thanks.

Do you still have Styrofoam available for free pickup? If so, when is a good time to stop by the store to pick it up? How much can we get?

Hi,MY NAME IS SAM AND I WAS WONDERING IF YOU COULD TELL ME WHAT SIZE THOSE STYROFOAM BLOCKS ARE?(L X W X H)ARE THEY SOLID BLOCKS?

Hello...I cam across your page on the free styrofoam and I was wonder how big of a block could i order. And is this a good material to build a floating car that will be in a highschool parade. I greatly appreciate your response.

If I could set up a 53' truck every week could you fill it up? We a located in Los Angeles , California.

Why not build your own shredder using lawn mower blades. I would guess anywhere from 4-8 blades spaced 1-3� apart would do the trick. You could weld the blades to a metal rod and then attach the rod to an electric motor.

The box could be made from plywood and 2x4�s. You could cut a hole in the top of the ply wood box in, which you could drop the pcs of Styrofoam through the opening and close the lid and turn on your shredding machine.

My suggestion is to use the Styrofoam to insulate homes. Save the environment by dumping Styrofoam into landfills and save fossil fuels with lower electric bills. Dual purpose use. I would think you could use an sticky resin blown through a machine with the Styrofoam and spray it into walls and in ceilings joists.

One suggestion that I have is to contact your local 'Habitat For Humanity' (http://tinyurl.com/96rhb), as styrofoam makes an /excellent/ insulation. There is one fellow in my area (just south of Alaska) who built his own house and insulated it by leaving a twelve-inch space at the top of his inside walls, then packed used (...and washed...) styrofoam trays, cups, plates, packing, etc. in between the walls. As I have spent considerable time visiting him, I can testify as to how well it works, even when the temperature outside drops past thirty below.

Hello, I am looking for a large block of styrofoam to shoot my bow at. I would need a rather large block, say 4' x4' x2'. I don't know if you have anything that big but I thought I'd ask, thanks-

A perfect application for block styrofoam is to use it as a backstop for an archery target. It is weatherproof and the perfect consistency for stopping arrows without damaging them. I would love to be able to get some big blocks if you have any available.

Two ideas come to mind: one is a rotating steel brush like a wire brush wheel, having a "weed whacker" effect on the foam, tearing it into the tiny beads it is made up of. If you had a clyndrical brush of this type, rotating at high speed in the bottom of a bin, It would reduce large volumes of the stuff to tiny beads quickly. It doesnt take much design skill to draw and build such a bin, but I would point out the need for a dust collector type of vacuum to keep the beads from going all over the place.

The second idea that comes to mind is chemically desolving the stuff. Gasoline and other petroleum distailates desolve the foam into a goo. If experimentation finds a clean solvent to do this with, we may have nice source for craft material. If we have any motivated chemists out there, I'd like to see some work done on making a reasonably priced casting material out of used styrofoam and a safe solvent we can just soak the stuff in. The obvious problem we need to grapple with in this scenerio is avoiding VOC's or other nasty fumes and smell. Since our industries seems to use this stuff by the frreight train load, I really do wish they did more with the corn starch based stuff that has a chance of being biodegradeable.

Last but not least I wish to say that whoever invented those styrofoam peanuts gets no admiration from me. I hate that stuff. Brad James

Hi. I saw in your catalog that you give away used Styrofoam material for free. My question is the opposite: I have received several orders from you over the past year or so and have kept all of the foam peanuts, as I can't bring myself to wastefully throw them away. Can I send them to you for reuse? I will pay shipping. -Tim K.

Directron: Yes, please simply ship them back to:

Directron.com Attn: Warehouse Styrofoam Recycle 10402 Harwin Drive Houston, TX 77036

Thank you for the question!

To make it easier for our customers to order and receive this material, we have turned this page into a product page. By placing this item into your shopping basket, you are essentially paying $2 plus shipping for ONE (1) monitor box full of this styrofoam (3 pieces per box).

Notes: (1) We added the $2 to by-pass the $2 minimum order requirement on our website. We shall remove the $2 from your order. (2) You can choose Visa, American Express, Discover Card, and Paypal to pay for the shipping. (3) The foam structure dimensions are 21" x 18.5" x 8". (4) We'll pack four (3) pieces into one monitor box (additional broken pieces optional to the center). The dimensions of the monitor box are 22" x 19" x 17.5". (5) The blocks we have are empty in the middle. You can ask us to break other blocks to fill up the gap. (6) Most of the questions concern the size of the styrofoam we have. The physical size has been shown above. As shown in the picture, these are not solid blocks. We do not have blocks that are larger than 2feet in any directions. (7) For those who are in Houston, please just stop by our location and pick up any quantity you want. We always have these materials in stock. (8) For those out who live outside of Houston, you'll have to pay shipping to receive these free materials.

(9) We have found someone in California who sends trucks to our warehouse to pick these up. As a result, we no longer offer this item to other individuals.

Enclosed is a Runi Video of how we densifie Styrofoam 50-1 (with a RUNI ESP Compactor). Let me know if I can help? Bestest! --Tom

You can melt styrofoam down to a manageable volume by pouring gasoline over it, but the resulting product is flammable. My pyro kids, who invented this process, call the resultant "napalm." --Cynthia, Gilroy CA

I was reading about your quest to recycle your styrofoam packaging.

You mentioned you found a place in California to come pick it up. I found this list of EPS (expanded polystyrene) recyclers. Could you host the list on your website (or link to it)?

I wonder if the Houston based recyclers listed here would take your waste.

http://www.epspackaging.org/pdf/AFPRWebsiteRecyclingLocations112907.pdf

Thanks for recycling!
--
Arnold
Houston

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so: 3 Free Styrofoam Blocks - One Full Monitor Box of It

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Three Free Styrofoam Blocks