Foam boxes from the fish market, vegetable crates or pharmaceutical shipments pile up in the yard because collection does not pay: EPS is 98 per cent air, distance and volume set the collection cost, and weight sets the income. When the two do not meet, the collector does not come.
Volume comes down first. Breaking by hand needs no investment but raises dust, a baler turns the boxes into a transportable block, and thermal densifying cuts volume most and needs the highest investment. Fish and meat boxes carry blood, meltwater and label residue; clean and soiled foam are collected as separate streams.
A weighbridge and handover document is taken for every batch: the waste producer fills in the previous year's waste declaration form by the end of March each year and keeps a copy for five years (Waste Management Regulation, Article 9).
Solving it on the production side is often cheaper: on a line working with returnable containers the foam stream approaches zero. A baler makes sense if monthly volume noticeably raises transport cost.
