Styrofoam Recycling in the San Francisco Bay Area
Curbside bins send Styrofoam straight to landfill. We densify it instead — EPS #6 foam, clean packing peanuts, and bubble wrap, dropped off in Burlingame or collected from your business.
414,161
Individual Customers
Served
34,006,783
Pounds of Electronics
Recycled
No appointment is needed for drop-off recycling. Just come to our Burlingame EcoCenter to recycle your computers and electronics.
Styrofoam Recycling with GreenCitizen
GreenCitizen is providing a Styrofoam recycling service to repurpose and reuse this plastic, as well as lessen the impact on landfills. Discover more about the responsible recycling of foam below, as well as how you can participate!
“Styrofoam” is actually a brand name for a closed-cell extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation product, but in common usage, people often use the term “styrofoam” to refer to disposable items made from expanded polystyrene (EPS).
Drop off Styrofoam, or Have Us Collect It
Styrofoam is mostly air, so the right option usually comes down to how much space it is taking up. A few bags fit in a car. A stockroom of packaging does not.
Residential drop-off — from $5 a bag
Bring your foam to the Burlingame EcoCenter during opening hours. There is no appointment, no booking form, and no minimum quantity.
- Choose it for packaging from a TV, monitor, appliance, or furniture delivery.
- $5 per 30-gallon bag, measured waist high.
- Clean packing peanuts and unpopped bubble wrap are free.
- Open to anyone, whether or not you live inside the pickup radius.
Business pickup — from $5 a bag
We collect from your warehouse, stockroom, or loading dock anywhere inside our 35-mile radius. Volume pricing applies once you are past a few bags.
- Choose it for retail, labs, hospitality, logistics, and anyone unboxing at scale.
- Priced by volume — bag, Gaylord bin, or full truckload.
- Same-day and 24-hour options are available on business pickups.
- One scheduled visit clears a stockroom that would take many car trips.
Not sure how much you have? A Gaylord bin holds roughly 40 cubic feet of foam. If your pile is bigger than a couple of trash bags, a pickup is usually cheaper than repeated trips.
What Type of Styrofoam We Can Recycle
Not all white foam is the same material. The resin code stamped into the foam decides whether we can recycle it, and mixing types contaminates the whole batch. Look for the small triangle, usually molded into a corner or the underside.
Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Foam #6
Rigid white block foam that snaps rather than bends. The protective packaging around a new TV, monitor, appliance, or piece of furniture.
Accepted
Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Foam #4
Soft, flexible sheet foam and pouches that bend without breaking. It melts at a different temperature and contaminates the EPS stream.
Not accepted
Foam Packing Peanuts
Bring them bagged so they do not scatter. They need to be clean and dry, with no tape, labels, or shipping debris mixed in.
Free to drop offAlso Accepted
- Unpopped bubble wrap — free at residential drop-off.
Are you unsure? Give us a call beforehand and we will tell you what we can and cannot take.
Call GreenCitizenWhat We Cannot Take
- Rigid polyurethane foam
- Flexible polyurethane foam
- Mattresses
- Couches and upholstered furniture
- Low-density polyethylene (LDPE/PELD) foam #4
- EPS from food packaging (even if rinsed)
How Much Does Styrofoam Recycling Cost?
Business Pickup Pricing
| Volume | Cost |
|---|---|
| Truckload | $900 |
| Gaylord bin | $65 per bin, plus a $115 pickup fee |
| 30-gallon bag | $5 per bag |
Gaylord bins measure 48″ × 40″ × 36″ and hold roughly 40 cubic feet of foam when packed well.
Residential Drop-off Pricing
| Material | Cost |
|---|---|
| 30-gallon bag (waist high) | $5 per bag |
| Foam packing peanuts | Free |
| Unpopped bubble wrap | Free |
Residential drop-offs are charged either by the piece or by volume.
Styrofoam Recycling Process: What Actually Happens to Your Foam
Styrofoam is roughly 95% air, which is exactly why it fails in normal recycling — it costs more to move than the material is worth. Densifying solves that by squeezing the air out first.
Sorted by resin
Incoming foam is separated by type. Non-EPS plastics are pulled out of the load and the remaining foam is cleaned before it goes anywhere near the machine.
Shredded
Clean EPS is fed into our Plastic Foam Densifier (PFD) XT200, which shreds the foam down to a uniform particle size.
Heated and compressed
The shredded foam is heated and pressurized into a paste, then formed into solid ingots of densified polystyrene — roughly a fiftieth of the original volume.
Sold on as raw material
Ingots go to manufacturers who granulate or re-polymerize them into new plastic products, instead of the foam occupying landfill space indefinitely.
There is a second route. Foam can also be mechanically chopped, cleaned, and extruded into recycled plastic resins (rLDPE, rPS). Those resins are used on their own or blended with virgin resin — a 70/30 blend, for example — to make a new product while keeping its structural integrity.
What Densified Styrofoam Becomes After Recycling
Once the air is out, polystyrene is a raw material with a resale market. These are typical applications for recycled EPS ingots across the plastics industry.
Granulated Pellets
Ingots are granulated back into pellets for molded goods such as pens, rulers, and plant containers.
Architectural Molding
Densified polystyrene is used as a base for crown molds and interior trim profiles.
Picture Frames
Recycled ingots can serve as the base material for framing stock before it is finished.
Surfboard Cores
Re-polymerized polystyrene is used as a filler material in board cores.
Why Styrofoam Recycling Costs Anything at All
Most people expect foam recycling to be free, because the material feels like nothing. That is the problem: it weighs almost nothing and takes up enormous space, so nearly all of the cost is handling rather than material. Four things set the price.
Logistics
Collecting and hauling bulky, low-density foam from pickup locations to the EcoCenter. A truck fills up on volume long before it reaches a useful weight.
Labor
Staff time to pull non-EPS plastics out of each load and clean the foam. Contaminated foam ruins a batch, so this step cannot be skipped.
Densifying
The operational cost of running the plastic foam densifier that turns loose foam into transportable ingots.
Waste to energy
Foam too contaminated to clean to standard is diverted from landfill and used as a renewable energy source instead.
How to Prepare for Styrofoam Recycling
Two minutes of prep at home helps us tremendously.
How to Prepare It
- Pull off tape, labels, and shipping stickers. Adhesive residue counts as contamination.
- Remove cardboard, plastic film, and molded plastic inserts from inside the foam.
- Rinse and dry any food packaging. Wet or greasy foam cannot be densified.
- Bag your packing peanuts so they do not blow across the lot.
- Leave large blocks whole. Breaking them up creates static-charged crumbs that are harder to handle.
Why the Curbside Bin Does Not Work
Putting Styrofoam in a household recycling bin feels like the right thing to do, but almost no Bay Area curbside program is set up to process it. Foam gets pulled out at the sorting facility and sent to landfill, where it does not biodegrade.
Standard plastic foams, like other plastics numbered #1 to #6, are generally not biodegradable — some #7 foams are the exception. Foam that reaches landfill stays there.
Recycling it properly needs a densifier, which is why it has to come to a facility that runs one.
Our Service Area: Where We Collect Styrofoam
Drop-off is open to everyone at our Burlingame EcoCenter. Business pickup is available within a 35-mile radius of the EcoCenter, covering San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and the Peninsula. See every city we serve →
SF & Peninsula
South Bay
East Bay
- Alameda
- Albany
- Berkeley
- Concord
- Danville
- Dublin
- El Cerrito
- Emeryville
- Fremont
- Hayward
- Livermore
- Newark
- Oakland
- Piedmont
- Pleasanton
- San Leandro
- San Ramon
- Union City
- Walnut Creek
North Bay & Marin
- Corte Madera
- Larkspur
- Mill Valley
- San Anselmo
- San Rafael
- Sausalito
- Tiburon
Styrofoam Recycling FAQ
Yes, plastic foam is recyclable when it is clean and separated from other plastics. The catch is that almost no curbside program handles it — put Styrofoam in a household recycling bin and it will normally be pulled out at the sorting facility and sent to landfill. It has to reach a facility with a foam densifier, which is what we run in Burlingame.
Drop it off at our EcoCenter at 1831 Old Bayshore Hwy, Suite 2, Burlingame, CA 94010, Monday to Friday between 10 AM and 6 PM. No appointment is needed and drop-off is open to anyone, wherever you live. Businesses within 35 miles of Burlingame can book a pickup instead.
Residential drop-off is $5 per 30-gallon bag, and clean packing peanuts and unpopped bubble wrap are free. Business pricing is $900 per truckload, $65 per Gaylord bin plus a $115 pickup fee, or $5 per 30-gallon bag.
We cannot accept rigid or flexible polyurethane foam, mattresses, couches, or furniture. We also cannot take low-density polyethylene (LDPE/PELD) foam #4, because it melts at a different temperature and contaminates the EPS stream.
Yes. Clean foam packing peanuts and unpopped bubble wrap are both free to drop off at the Burlingame EcoCenter. Bag the peanuts before you come, and keep everything dry and free of tape and labels.
No. Standard plastic foams, like other plastics numbered #1 to #6, are generally not biodegradable. Some #7 foams are the exception. Foam that reaches landfill stays there, which is why diverting it matters.
Clean EPS is fed through our Plastic Foam Densifier (PFD) XT200. The machine shreds the foam, then heats and pressurizes it into a paste that is formed into solid densified polystyrene ingots. Manufacturers granulate or re-polymerize those ingots into new plastic products.
Business pickup runs within a 35-mile radius of the Burlingame EcoCenter, covering most of San Francisco, the Peninsula, the South Bay, and much of the East Bay and Marin. Drop-off is open to anyone regardless of location.
Search the Green Directory for a foam recycling location near you. It lists drop-off points across the country by material.
Ready to Clear out the Styrofoam?
Drop off today with no appointment, or tell us roughly how much you have and we will quote the pickup before you commit to anything.