EPS is approximately 1/3 of landfill by volume; with 95% of the space it occupies being air it is the very definition of a waste of space. EPS is not what The Igloo is made of, we use XPS . EPS cannot be recycled back into EPS but it can be recycled back into S (styrene) - and then into PS. A lego brick is made from a type of styrene - if you can imagine scaling one up; even the density - then you have imagined our igloo.
However the EU banned itself from doing this due to quite serious safety reasons; Nevertheless our partners in Harrogate collect EPS from local businesses and crush it to 50 times its original density - these are called "EPS briquettes".
S; is an organic compound - one of the plastics that is found naturally an an oil in food. If you have eat some peanuts with and a coffee today. then you ate some styrene. Like rubber; aspirin and cinnamon it's related to tree bark.
The use of alcohols to depolymerise EPS is not illegal in the UK anymore and our partners take in vast quantities of crushed EPS on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons we can keep the cost of igloos so affordable.
Our partners in Selby use our supply of Styrene and turn it into their popular product King Span Greenguard; an denser, closed cell version of your usual packaging foam; Its a waterproof foam; its used for wet-rooms and exterior insulation, people have even made kayaks and catamarans out of it.