CasualCause

Exactly. We can afford such "risks", however cruel I may sound. Being an engineer, you have to know how far you can go with feeding unproductive demands at Mother Earths expense. Strictly from resource perspective, the human resource is the cheapest among all.

Indeed, I forgot to link wiki though I intended to. Understanding the bulk notion, I can't see the problem with compressing scrap PS. I find it easily feasible to pressure out air from that 1m3 until 330kg fits in there instead of 30kg. This is just packing problem from my perception. Therefore if its that valuable in this ultra-packaging, I cannot see the problem with recycling it. This is certainly not maintaining huge MPa-s for minutes long to melt them into a reusable material, battling with temperature levels. Collecting it is the same procedure as collecting pet, or glass.

Thank you for the article I am interested in fact the recycling cost of Polystyrene (any kind of it). Knowing its high recycling value as pellets, compressed to 330kg/m3 or the EPS (Expanded Polystyrene-foam polystyrene) as insulation sheets. There is certainly a reason why isn't accepted as recyclable material, and the reason may be in the cost of pressurizing it.

Indeed. Atmospheric pressure is Po. On To=24-30 Celsius room temperature. (I am giving the temperature in case if temperature will count as a factor in pressurizing material, i.e. will overheat & overheat has to be calculated?) I am aware of compressing solid PS (non-foam) may require a huge amount of pressure. I recently found some documentation on this subject, namely: A Static and Dynamical Properties of PS http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ma60073a024 And a book of high pressure Chemistry and Physics of Polymere http://books.google.de/books?id=6IwG_5hqgGkC&dq=polystyrene+compressibility&source=gbs_navlinks_s I will return with a solution proposal later, after I read these a bit .

Hi all! I may not have the necessary knowledge in chemistry to calculate such seemingly easy problem. How much pressure is needed to compact 30kg/m3 density PS into a 330kg/m3 one? Can someone please explain me this through equations? Hope I am not to be expelled for my noobness

Apparently I can confirm this. I am working at an automotive safety company. It is general knowledge that an impact above 25-35 mph is very likely lethal and protective measures such as airbags are not to be relied on.