Recycling & Safe Disposal of Foam in Macon County, IL

Polystyrene foam items with the #6 chasing arrows recycling symbol are recyclable but are not accepted locally in single-stream curbside or drop-off recycling.

House-hold generated clean, #6 foam items may be dropped off  for recycling at:

April 2018 Foam Collection Pilot Program

During the month of April 2018, foam was collected during a pilot program. Select household-generated foam items with the #6 chasing arrows symbol (commonly referred to as Styrofoam) were accepted during the pilot program. Sixteen cubic yards of loose foam items, weighing 202 pounds, was collected during the month-long pilot program.  The collected foam was transported to Dart Container in Urbana for processing and recycling.

The pilot program revealed that solutions for the following items need to be worked out for a permanent foam collection to be implemented.
-Foam collection center needs a much larger capacity than the bin that was used during the pilot program.
-Foam collection center needs to be located at a occupied site.
-The environmental costs/benefits of such a program need further study.
-A long-term solution for the acceptance of the collected foam for densifying or recycling needs to be secured.
-Environmentally and economically sustainable transportation of collected foam to a recycler needs to be secured.

Macon County Environmental Management in partnership with the Macon County Community Environmental Council is working towards identifying solutions so a permanent foam collection may be implemented.