{"id":12129,"date":"2021-02-11T08:52:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T05:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=12129"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:31:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:31:25","slug":"eco-friendly-styrofoam-alternative-made-from-paper-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2021\/02\/11\/eco-friendly-styrofoam-alternative-made-from-paper-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-friendly Styrofoam-alternative made from paper waste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Over 14 million tons of polystyrene (plastic foam) is produced each year, while Americans alone discard roughly 25 billion Styrofoam cups per year, according to a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/greendiningalliance.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/real-cost-of-styrofoam_written-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2016 St. Louis University report<\/a>. Unfortunately, most \u201ccold chain\u201d products such as food, floriculture, or medicine are shipped in single-use Styrofoam packaging, which is difficult to recycle and are non-biodegradable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To remedy this issue, scientists at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/tu-dresden.de\/tu-dresden\/newsportal\/news\/coole-verpackungen-wissenschaftler-der-tu-dresden-entwickeln-nachhaltiges-isolationsmaterial-zum-versand-von-kuehlpflichtigen-produkten?set_language=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TU Dresden\u2019s Institute of Natural Products Engineering<\/a>&nbsp;have developed an insulating material from discarded paper for shipping temperature-sensitive products. Unlike Styrofoam, the new material can be fully recycled at existing facilities and biodegradable when dumped in landfills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>German company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.easy2cool.de\/versandk%C3%BChlung_en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">easy2cool<\/a>\u00a0is currently in the process of commercializing the Styrofoam-alternative insulating material. The production process involves first converting shredded paper waste into a slurry, then slabs of that slurry are dried into mats made of a cellulose-fiber matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The resulting material\u2019s low density and narrow pore size give it a Styrofoam-like low thermal conductivity, allowing it to act as highly effective insulation. \u201cDue to the low thermal conductivity and higher heat storage capacity of cellulose, the insulating properties of the sustainable fiber mats even surpass those of most other materials,\u201d explained project coordinator Thomas Schrinner, of the Chair of Wood Technology &amp; Fiber Materials Engineering. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intelligentliving.co\/eco-friendly-styrofoam-alternative-paper-waste\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over 14 million tons of polystyrene (plastic foam) is produced each year, while Americans alone discard roughly 25 billion Styrofoam cups per year, according to a&nbsp;2016 St. Louis University report.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}