Montreal Gazette - Now and forever: The Styrofoam dilemma

It's in your plastic cutlery, it's under your meat, it's the lid on your latte. And polystyrene, a.k.a. plastic No. 6, is in your world -- for at least 200 years longer than you will be -- clogging up storm drains and landfills. So why is this tenacious product, better known by its trademark Styrofoam, still being used to wrap everything from green peppers to sirloin steaks?

So why don't we recycle polystyrene instead of sending it adrift? The technology does exist, says Tamer Boyaci, an assistant professor at the Desautels faculty of management at McGill University -- the problem is the cost. "It's not viable because this type of plastic is very light and takes up a lot of space, so it has a low scrap value. People are not interested in collecting it."