Seafood company’s recycling program cuts 300,000 lb of landfill waste

Pacific Seafood, a family-owned seafood company based in Portland, Ore., has made recycling a top priority by investing in a styrene foam recycling program that keeps more than 300,000 pounds of packaging materials out of landfills each year.

Instead of sending styrene foam collected at Oregon and Washington distribution facilities to landfills, Pacific Seafood invested in a machine to break down the polystyrene for reuse. One pallet of styrene foam, which is approximately four feet by six feet in size, is condensed into a two-foot block called an ingot, which is later ground into beads that are used in molding, picture frames, cameras and other consumer goods.

“There is no need for this type of packing material to go to waste,” said Kurt Mitchell, operations manager for Pacific Seafood’s Northwest operations. “We are thinking outside the box and have come up with innovative ways to put packaging waste to good use.”

In addition to recycling styrene foam, Pacific Seafood composts its used wax cardboard for potting soil and sends plastic pallet wrap to a recycler to be manufactured into products like siding and composite decking. Even broken pallets, if beyond repair, are sent with scrap wood to be converted to mulch.

In 2008, Pacific Seafood’s waste reduction efforts, at the company’s Clackamas facility alone, reduced the amount waste being sent to local landfills by more than 600,000 pounds.

SOURCE: Pacific Seafood