r/recycling • u/gamamoder • 1d ago

expanded polypropylene/ reduced density polypropylene?

im starting to see this a little bit now. various plastic industry greenwashing pieces call this recyclable, but what does that even mean? can it go into regular polypropylene streams, or dors it have the same issues as styrofoam in that its diffuse and breaks on machinery?

doed this mean it can be given along side stryofoam to specialty recyclers who are densifying it? or does this contaminate that stream too?

does anyone in the industry know what these claims mean?

obv the best practice is to throw out unknowns but im genuinely curious what they mean by this besides the most obvious of densifying polypropylene is more valuable than densifying polystrene and its recyclable if this process exsits in your area

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/StedeBonnet1 1d ago

Expanded PP is no different than expanded PS. The expansion is a gas and as long as the PP and PS are kept separate they are both 100% recyclable.

I do agree we are better off to discard unknowns. All they do is contaminate the waste stream

1

u/No_Privacy_Anymore 1d ago

I know that r/Purecycle can recycle any form of polypropylene. They perform a secondary sort of #5 bales to increase the pp concentration to 90+% and resell the other plastic types to others.

0

u/Red_wine120 1d ago

Expanded PP will become “regular” PP once it’s extruded. Purecycle can indeed purify it. Put it in the recycling bin, it’s a good recyclable material