When heading to the beach for a spectacular view of the sea and a tan, we can hardly notice what is devouring our marine environment -- the plastic. Research from CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) has shown that approximately three-quarters of the rubbish along the Australian coast is plastic, and Australians are battling against a tide of millions of pieces of discarded plastic debris at beach clean-up events all across the continent.

Polystyrene Take-out food packaging is Blamed

Plastic use is a serious challenge to marine environment protection, and it manifests itself as an eyesore in our beaches, in our inland communities and around the world. A particularly prevalent example is the takeaway container or cup made from foamed white polystyrene (often referred to as EPS). Take-out food packaging like cups and to-go boxes are generally made from foam polystyrene, and utensils, lids and food packaging from solid polystyrene – which means that every time we use one of these items we are contributing to the trash problem.

Like practically all plastics, these polystyrene packaging takes so long to truly biodegrade that it is classed as not biodegradable. Instead, once it is in the ocean, the churning waves and beating sun weather it back down into bite-size pieces more easily than is the case with other plastics. Once in our oceans, the plastic pieces is extremely dangerous for our marine wildlife. We know that mother birds are feeding plastic pieces to their baby chicks, mistaking it for food because of  the smell of fish or chips.

Disposable Polystyrene Waste is Recyclable

Fortunately, these waste disposable polystyrene food containers and cups with bulky volume and lightweight can be recycled before they are blown into the ocean and smashed into plastic debris. Now there is a polystyrene recycling machine that can compress the waste polycolors into one of 90% of the original volume, while the compressed polystyrene ingots can be sold to the polystyrene recyclers for reprocessing, and then made into decorative new products such as photo and mirror frames, so as to turn waste into treasure.

The Whole Country is Deeply Involved