Styrofoam in Arkansas landfills

The life expectancy of styrofoam and materials made of polystyrene is up to 500 years. A controversial bill was introduced in 2007 that would've required landfills to offer styrofoam recycling, effectively banning styrofoam from Arkansas landfills (HB1465). The controversy lies not in the idea itself, of course, but in the burden it places on the poor guy whose job it is at the landfill to go through every bag of trash and separate the styrofoam (which may or may not have been included in each local regulation). It cleared the House and died in the Senate.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will host a styrofoam recycling presentation tomorrow (Monday) at 1:00 pm at its new office located at 5301 Northshore Drive in North Little Rock. Representative Kathy Webb, Jim Hendren of Hendren Plastic, and Sean Stephan of Bentonville will be in attendance. Hendren Plastics began a new process that completely reclaims scrap styrofoam, and Sean Stephan invented a unique reusable solution that dissolves styrofoam. The Benton County Solid Waste District currently recycles styrofoam into a polymer, which the court plans to use in asphalt used to overlay roads.