Recycle:

Options for year-round Styrofoam recycling:

  • Subscribe or find a friend with a Ridwell subscription (there are 1053 households on Bainbridge that subscribe) and recycle through them for a fee. People have found success in finding a Ridwell subscriber by asking on Facebook’s Bainbridge Islanders or FB’s Zero Waste Bainbridge.
    Here’s what kind of Styrofoam Ridwell takes.
  • Styro Recycle in Kent accepts Styrofoam Monday-Friday for free.
  • DTG (Recovery 1) in Tacoma accepts Styrofoam Monday-Saturday for a fee ($7/cu yd, quoted 11-5-2024)
  • Recycle My Styrofoam – Located in Northeast Seattle near Magnuson Park. Please email contact@recyclemystyrofoam.com with the subject “dropoff” and you will receive directions for where and how to drop it off.

Kitsap County Solid Waste will hold a Styrofoam collection in April 2025.  This page announces their recycling events.

Styrofoam preparation guidelines:

  • Bag peanuts separately from block packaging
  • No debris in the bag
  • Do not include compostable peanuts (usually cylindrical in shape; if they stick together when moistened, they are compostable — dissolve at home)
  • Must be clean and dry
  • Remove all tape and stickers
  • Must be #6 EPS foam (it snaps and has beads) – block packaging, coolers, take-out clamshells and cups, meat trays (not tan!)
  • Separate white from colored
  • Separate block packaging from food ware

Styrofoam not accepted:

  • Wet or moldy
  • Items contaminated with rodent droppings or other biohazards
  • Insulation (e.g., pink or blue stuff or spray-in foam)
  • Sealed foam (e.g., Insta-pak)
  • Foil-lined foam
  • Hot tub and dock foam
  • Beach foam
  • Floral foam (green blocks of sponge-like foam)
  • Styro with glue, attached cardboard or screws
  • Foam microbeads
  • Tan meat trays
  • Soft, flexible foam (EPE)
  • Futon mattresses

Rethink:

There are many alternatives to using Styrofoam block packaging and peanuts, which take hundreds of years to degrade and easily become litter. If your product comes packaged in the stuff, write to the company to ask them to switch to packaging that is easily compostable (e.g., compostable peanuts, molded paper, mushroom packaging) or easily recyclable (e.g., cardboard, air pillows).

Last updated 6/9/2024