Northfield resident Annie Chappell couldn’t bear the thought of throwing away her Styrofoam. Assuming others had the same aversion, she worked to ensure community members wouldn’t have to.

The community group Drawdown Montague, individual volunteers from Northfield and the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District have teamed up for the second year to offer free recycling of plastic foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, at the Montague and Northfield transfer stations. Residents of these two towns can drop off their unwanted material on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon throughout April.

This plastic foam, also called expanded polystyrene, is often used for packaging materials. It is typically not accepted by most town recycling systems and is commonly thrown away, but is slow to degrade. If disposed of improperly, the foam can leak chemicals into the environment, harming water sources.

Drawdown Montague, a group of volunteers who advocate for environmentally friendly programs, was interested in offering plastic foam recycling to eliminate one form of plastic from the waste stream. Chappell had a similar idea in Northfield, as she has always shipped her plastic foam out to recycling centers and she realized she could help others do the same.

“This is a nice collaboration we are hoping to build on,” said Susan Campbell, a member of Drawdown Montague.

The two groups went to the Franklin Solid Waste Management District to put their idea into action. The district’s support includes collaborating with the volunteers from the towns to work out the logistics, ordering supplies, writing press releases, designing the flyer and other publicity, and working with town administrators, according to Amy Donovan, program director at Franklin County Solid Waste Management District.

The first collection was held in 2022, with drop-off locations at the Montague Transfer Station and Northfield’s Community Bible Church. Their efforts proved successful, with the two communities filling their storage containers and diverting 70 cubic yards of plastic foam from the landfill. This year, they rented larger containers from MiBox, getting 20-foot boxes compared to last year’s 14-foot boxes.

Once collected, the plastic foam will be sent to Agawam-based Gold Circuit E-Cycling. The company can use recycled expanded polystyrene to make picture frames, baseboard or crown molding, building insulation and insulating boards known as extruded polystyrene, according to the company’s website.

However, the company cannot accept wet or dirty foam. All foam must have tape and labels removed. Volunteers are on hand at the transfer stations to assist. Although registration is not required, space is limited, so Styrofoam is accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

The program costs about $500 for each town to participate, according to Chappell. The towns have paid the cost of renting and shipping these storage containers and the Franklin Solid Waste Management District has paid for large plastic bags that the foam gets packaged into.

Massachusetts towns with transfer stations earn Recycling Dividend Points (RDP) through the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is then translated into monetary rewards to host various waste reduction efforts such as these collections.

“We’re really appreciative of the volunteers who stepped up to staff these collections, and the towns that agreed to use their RDP funding to pay for the MiBox rental and supplies,” Donovan said.

“The state is pushing on one end,” Campbell said, “and giving incentives so the towns can respond.”

The New Hampshire-based company MiBox is supportive of the plastic foam recycling effort, too, and gave the towns a discount on the rental fee for the storage boxes, according to Chappell.

“This is a repeatable model in other towns,” she noted.

Campbell said this program could not only expand to other towns but could become an annual or even twice-annual event. It will likely not become a permanent service offered at the transfer stations, and will instead be a special event run by volunteers.

“If people know this happens every year,” Campbell said, “they will know to collect their Styrofoam throughout the year to recycle during April.”

On a broader level, both Campbell and Chappell emphasized the need to pressure companies to move away from using Styrofoam packaging. But for now, they will provide a way to recycle the materials that are still being used.

“We have more here than the landfills and the recycling centers can take,” Campbell said. “We will keep working to add to the reduction of waste.”

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.

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