Polystyrene

I use broken polystyrene as crocks in plant pots - makes them quite a bit lighter.

Sorry Baggs, not your point I know but one way of recycling polstyrene.

Horrible stuff! And it's so bulky, must be 90% air. Surely someone could invent a packaging material which can be recycled?
We have to separate the cardboard which is recycled. - goodness knows where the polystyrene ends up. I thought it was burnt, but that would cause pollution.

A number of companies use foam chads made from cornflour, like the compostable plastic bags. these can go on the compost heap or melt in water and can be washed down the sink.

I should also add that my new laptop came in a cardboard box with the shapes that held it secure made from moulded waste paper pulp. Once I had unpacked the equipment and checked it was working I put the waste paper pulp shapes on the compost heap.

When I ran a playgroup for 2-5 year olds, we kept a heap of the big polystyrene pieces that are packed around white goods. The children would build houses with them, complete with windows. If the houses fell down, or someone used a piece as a weapon, no-one got hurt. Soon after this, toy-shops began to stock cubes and other shapes of foam covered with PVC, at extortionate prices, but our polystyrene was free!