This machine can recycle Polystyrene / Founder Lou Troiano Foamcycle

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Transcript

Cory Connors: 0:31

Welcome to sustainable packaging with Cory Connors . Today's guest is Mr. Lou Troiano , who is the founder of foam cycle. How are you,

Lou Troiano: 0:40

Lou? Okay, Cory . Nice to be here and thank you for having me. And honestly just thank you for your work. I've been listening to your podcast. Thank you for your work and bringing forth some ideas and innovation. To this new concept of recycling for this country, have a sense. You know, trying to fold it on itself. So thank

Cory Connors: 0:58

you for your work. Yes. I appreciate that very much. And thank you for what you do. I'm excited to tell the audience about a foam cycle it's credibly innovative and it's it's, it's really impressive. So can you tell us about how you got into this business? What's your background?

Lou Troiano: 1:15

A little bit. Sure. So for the last 23 years, and you know, it's funny because these conversations bring out how long you're doing something crazy for 23, 3 years, I've been in the in the sales end of both waste. And now the last 17 years on the recycling side of the industry and the two different industries in sales, I would walk into a customer and sell them on compactors and. And just on a way to, to better remove their trash and bring it to a landfill. And then last 17, I flipped sides and I became, I shouldn't say the bad guy to the good guy, cause a lot of people are listening to you. So, but I, now I go into companies and I try to help them capture material before it goes into the trash compactor. So, you know, I've put out baling machines and it just a litany of different equipment and options to recycle just about every. A commercial facility would have that. And that was basically my entree. Yeah. That was basically my entry into this, into this stuff that we call styrofoam. So it segues into it. Right. So first of all, I am in the Northern New Jersey, New York city, Pennsylvania area in that Northern tier. I reside up in Pennsylvania, but I've been working this area for quite some time, mostly in New Jersey.

Cory Connors: 2:29

And, and you were about to say something else. I'm sorry.

Lou Troiano: 2:32

Yeah. Yeah. So just to clear the air on a couple of things, cause when people listen to this, there's gotta be some clarification, clarity around the subject of what we call styrofoam. And first of all, it's incorrect. The word styrofoam is a Dow chemical trade name for an insulation product. They produce usually pink or blue in nature. It's made with expanded foam or polystyrene, and it's got fire retardant chemicals added to it. So when it's placed in someone's home, it has both the ability to insulate and obviously not to expand the fire should it happened. So that's the Dow chemical name? We don't know any better. We never knew any better. We call it styrofoam. And so start over. Is basically now we just call his phone to his phone. It is very simple for them and that's what we, at least we call it. We try to educate folks on the form will come into it. It comes in two different types. One is packaging. Which is, they're both at the core of polystyrene, plastic, polystyrene plastic, that the core products, but if it's a polystyrene plastic and you injected air into it, you would get packaging foam, then you would get your coolers. And those big pieces of foam that are insulating your TV. And then when you extrude it, you would get the foam that say a dark container would put produce, which is your food service foams. So in this country right now, there's a battle state by state where legislators. Trying to ban the single use food service foam, but what folks don't know, it has zero effect on packaging foam. In fact, packaging foam has seen a dramatic increase in its production and use since COVID for crying out loud, the, our own Pfizer pharmaceutical vaccines are shipped in foam cooler. So. And the other thing I wanted to say is I'm not part of the foam industry. You know, I'm a recycler, that's what I do. If it all disappears tomorrow. Great. If it doesn't, we have to recycle it. So I worked for the foam industry. I have no ties to it. I'm not pro or against it. I'm a recycled. So when it happened in my job as a recycling person or specialist, I'd go into companies and companies like, especially the furniture companies, they generate so much packaging. Cooler refrigerators come in with foam around it. And so what these companies do now as you've seen over the years there, they don't ship you a box with all of them, the packaging with it, they did the packaging at a plant, and then they send you a white glove treatment. Right. They just bring it into your house without any packaging on it. But that packaging is somewhere it's just at the plant. So what I did I started to get into was, was putting out these machines. That would densify the packaging format, these warehouses, these big Williamson Omer and these big restoration hardware warehouses. And what this machine does is it grinds the foam. It heats it, and it extrudes the air safely. It's non contaminated air it's air. And once you take the air out of packaging foam out of a cooler or anything else you can think of, that's big, you wind up with just the polystyrene plus. So have a cooler 98% of it is air. That's why it's so lightweight. And 2% is the polystyrene plastic, but with these machines would do is extrude just the plastic. And that plastic is a high valued material. It is worth more per pound than probably any other recyclable material that you could think of other than like a copper. But it probably right now. Yeah, right now, if you had a ton of. You know, it's commanding five, $600 a ton. So when you think of cardboard values yeah. When you think your cardboard values at a hundred dollars a ton, the problem is how do you get enough of it to fill a truck? How do you get enough even in to your facility? So, anyway, so that's the basis of how this whole started. The whole thing started. I would go to a once again, a company and help them set up a machine and identified and plenty of buyers for the material. We'd reuse it. Then I came across a municipality. Back in 2015, I was doing business with, and the woman recycling coordinator ran this landfill drop-off center in New Jersey. So you can imagine the drop-off centers when you pull in, they collect, they do a great job collecting whatever you have as far as recycling. So our cycle bone materials and behind it is the landfill. So when she talks to you and you can see the mountain behind. So anyway, so she said to me, she sent it to him. He said, the Amazon effect is, is, is playing such a great part in folks dropping up more materials because they can't fit it at the curb. So Buffalo flowing your curves like container, you said, and the predominant material coming in is this foam Lou. She goes, can we do it? So that was kind of like my shock tank. My aha. Let me see. But that was like, it's interesting because the machines I put out have to be housed to to keep the weather from it, right. They're not made to be outside. So I created this encapsulated system with the foam identifier, with an area to store and collect and, and folks to work inside of this container lights, lights, cameras. Action basically came up with some great graphics. And I came back to the county, the landfill where the landfill is and presented a case to say, why don't we try this? And they said, great, we'll let you try it, but it's at your cost. And I said, okay. And we had a relationship since 2016, that was the first phone cycle system still in existence and, and just producing just amazing results. The facility and the site and the system want a Swan, a reward in 2017. Wow. And that. And that triggered counties throughout New Jersey to say, Hey, what's going on over there? And they started looking and we gave tours myself and this recycling coordinator. And the next thing, you know, you know, four systems narrower in New Jersey and with more coming. And we see that, I see that happen in now as I go state to state or I've placed systems now in Colorado and Wisconsin too, and Florida. And Kentucky. Yeah, everybody who seems to get one or the first ones to get at the rest of the state and the rest of the counties in the state saying, Hey, what's going on up there? Or resident school? Why do they have it? And I don't have it. So it's a nice, it's a nice trigger. It's a nice. That's it. That's amazing. Thank

Cory Connors: 8:45

you, Lou. I appreciate the wisdom I have just a quick couple of technical questions. Does the, does the machine grind it up and turn it into pellets or does it melt it and turn it into like a paste?

Lou Troiano: 9:01

It melted and extruded. Like if anyone's old enough to think about silly putty, that's how. You know when he comes out warm to the touch and then after a cools, it's as hard as a rock, but it's very, very dense. Right? I can get, I can get a pallet. If you can imagine a pallet, we always say pallet to this, but a pallet would weigh probably about 1500 pounds. Put it through this way. We did it in that. We did a lot of work at the county, the first system with respect to our analysis on how foam impacts a landfill, it's sitting at the landfill. So we brought in a colleague. Excuse me in 2019 Sussex and myself put in for a grant for Montclair state university in New Jersey. They had, they, they run a great program where they run green teams about a dozen green teams a year. And you apply for a team, usually made up of six to eight young. And this team comes in and helps you with a project, no matter what the project is, it could be, you want, you're a big company and you want your electrical use analyzed and reduced. So it's a really great program that we were lucky enough to get a grant, to get this green team. And I spent the summer with them and we did an analysis on foams impact on the landfill. There is no such data out there today. No, the industry never did it. The foam industry, of course. To do what, you know, look into something like that, how it affects a landfill, but the most important, the most important part about a landfill. I just want everybody to know this because you have these conversations and in many of your previous and probably going forward when, when something is compostable, something is recyclable. Something breaks down in two minutes, two years or 20 years, if it goes to a landfill, it does game is over. It doesn't matter. So every time somebody looks at something says, well, look, this is compostable. Let's use it. If you're not composting it, then it makes no sense. Cause it's going to go to a landfill and landfills fill up based on landfill airspace. And once that airspace is captured and stilled, you have to build another landfill. So you you've done nothing to accomplish anything. If you don't stop it before it goes into a lamp, that being said, foams impact on a landfill. Cause it's. And it doesn't condense even with the heavy machines of a landfill, it's highly impactful to a landfill. So unfortunately, or fortunately we've shown and we have data. Now we can apply to any landfill in the country by plugging in some basic metrics of what is the disposal rate. And we can come up with how much landfill airspace you will save for every ton of foam packaging waste. We remove from. Once again, never Dumble really impressed with the study. No, the green team did a great job. And so

Cory Connors: 11:43

could this be done by could this be done with other foam, like polyethylene or Paul, your

Lou Troiano: 11:48

thing? I, you know, my focus is on polystyrene. Sure. But I can tell you it can be done with both packaging and food service foam. And the first thing people say is, oh, food service bombs got all, you know, it's got food on it. My application foam cycle was built as a drop off center processor. Okay. We're not going around with a truck and dragging it around. It sits there. What happens today is a lot of counties don't have really a thorough drop-off center, but once you do, and where I placed them in where there's interest is where those drop-off centers are really impacting a county or even a state recycling. And once you drop off at people love to drop off stuff. And the county's honestly, I think they have a responsibility throughout the country to help folks recycle within their county or within their city. You know, there's so many items that could be recycled properly at a drop off center that can never be recycled at the curb, you know, foam being one of them. But if you add foam to mattresses, into metals, into your old gas tank and your old bicycle and, and on and on and on. Where I've seen some really, really extensive and just award-winning drop off centers. And if I could, there, there was one in particular because I was working in Colorado under the states. The state had a program called next cycle, and next cycle has now gone to Michigan, but it's a program that you, the. And they ask innovators from around the country. Hey, we have an application here apply. And if you, because our, our state has a horrible recycling rate and we need to make it better. So I applied and I was fortunate to get Foam cycle included in the Colorado program. Like in 2019. Yeah. So we went there and we met a whole bunch of people and I got to look at a whole bunch of towns and here comes the outliers. They, come to the top, right. Recycling rate in Colorado is at 17. And you say, wow, what a beautiful state, why such a horrible recycling rate, because land is so abundant and deep. Bill's so cheap. Why bother? You're really, really going to help the environment, which I was too. Right. So there's only one, there was a couple of counties in there that are really exceeding the 17% rate. And you say, why is that? Like, take for example, Loveland, but a nice. All right. Does everybody want to live in Loveland? Beautiful. And it really was, and it really is a beautiful, it's a beautiful city and it's run terrific. And if you look at the drop off center and it's extensive, if you renovated your house and got rid of your old porcelain, you know, a tub, they have a spot, bring your porcelain and they recycle it there. Anyway. So their recycling rate is almost 60%, 60% in this city of a state that it's at 17. The answer lies in drop off centers, foam cycle was built to help drop off centers collect now the foam and its packaging foam and food service foam. Because when you drop off food service foam, you whine, you bring it in clean. You're putting it in your car. It's not going into some container at the curb. Right? I have a system operating in North Carolina at a nonprofit cool tiny houses in Greensboro, North Carolina, the church organization. The city of Greensboro doesn't collect foam. These folks do it. I got them identifier. We put a whole program together. They did 27,000 pounds of recycled material last year alone. They actually, and they collect probably more food service foam, that packaging, because all the churches use food food service foam, and in states where it's not bad. Yeah, these are the results. So it's a pretty brilliant me to stop. I'm just, I'm just the the ignition. But once we start somewhere like in Wisconsin and of gamey county, Wisconsin, it just Google them. They, they call their system, the foam dome, and they're having so much fun with this thing. And so many people I tell everybody you could run for mayor. If you put one of these in your town, because everybody's excited to drop off their fault.

Cory Connors: 15:49

Yeah. I often, often I'll be driving by and I'll see somebody stuffing styrofoam and or polystyrene into their recycle bin. And I'll just think, oh, that's a problem. That's going to clog up the system. A lot of people don't understand just because it has a recycle symbol on it does not mean it's recyclable. And it's a real challenge with the packaging and the waste industry is how do we make. How do we educate the consumers to know what's really recyclable?

Lou Troiano: 16:56

Yeah. You know what query? I don't want to bash them too much because you know, they, they, when you look at the big waste companies, right, this is waste management Republic service. You know, these are companies that have to make money. They're there, they're controlled by corporations and they have to make money and they pay people good and good companies and all that kind of stuff. You know, not one of them will help you with a drop-off center. Not one of them. If you call it. Ha have anything to do with drop-off. They don't even understand the word drop-off you mean at the curb? No drop because they can't figure out a way to make money with it, but yet they call themselves these recycling companies, folks that are realize don't, don't rely on, you know, everything that's on TV. These small communities that put programs together, really any impact the environment. You know, so I just encourage everybody listening to just don't listen. The big talking heads, even he saw a lot of these organizations are run by marketing people who have never been on a garbage truck. They've never been inside of a receipt. They don't know what a compact or is from a, from a baling machine. They, you know what I mean? It's just, you have to start this from the bottom up. And that's what folks help with me. We're all boots on the ground. People were kicking. We're doing, we'll pull in, were delivering it's different. So we could talk about the process starting at the.'cause a lot of folks come at the top of this and they say, Hey, look, I just created this new product and it'll biodegrade in one year. Okay. But it still wants to go to a landfill. Right? Yep. And so they don't tell you the whole story about you. You've done nothing if that happens.

Cory Connors: 18:21

Yeah. I I think the challenge. We need to get the governments involved, the local counties, the local communities to really push for this kind of access. Do you, I'll be speaking at waste 360 in Las Vegas this year. Do you, do you plan to attend there? That's a really great convention full of people trying to recycle,

Lou Troiano: 18:43

you know, it is an, and I, and I apologize. I won't be there. Yeah, not at this point anyway, I still have a lot of work to do. I'm still you know, my hope is to one day to take this to one of these major companies and say, you know, I'm one salesman. I got one person helping me. I get, you know, most of my sales come from people reaching out to me. I don't call anyone. I said, but I can use a company's help. That's got 5,000 sales, then it can imagine the impact we can have across the country. That's kind of my trajectory. So I'm not, I'm not big enough for a waste 360 as far as a booth or that stuff, but yeah, a good show and you know, the industry's changing. So everybody's got to stay in tune to what's happening here, especially with product responsibility laws coming down and et cetera, you know

Cory Connors: 19:28

what what happens with the material that gets recycled? Where, where does it go and who who's, who's asking for it? Is it the, the manufacturers of, of polyester?

Lou Troiano: 19:42

Good question. Good question. Okay. So in New Jersey, I just want to tell you to tell you what I do with it, and then, you know, cause I know firsthand, right? So in New Jersey, I'm lucky enough to have one company. It's the only one in the United States because everyone else left the India and Indonesia that actually makes picture frame molding from the foam that's collected. So this densified foam goes to this company. They grind it extruded and to really ornate and beautiful. Picture frame moldings. And they're about 10 foot long when they're extruded, they put a nice veneer on it. And the whole product is a hundred percent recyclable again. Okay. Most of these frames actually are sold down in Florida. They cut them to size and put them around pictures that have sold on these cruise ships when the cruise ships were operated in. Anyway, so this one company, yeah. This one company makes a frame and. And that's what they do. And they, they don't, they're not even listed. You can, I couldn't even give you a website cause they don't even want any more business. They have enough time keeping up, but all the companies in New Jersey to Ms Sally's, I set it up. So they sell them. They sold this one company it's called Princeton molding and they buy the foam from New Jersey. And if you drop it off to them right now, the owner will give you$500 a ton they'll scale you in. And, and he can't get enough of the foam for his material. Okay. So what's. The frame that he makes is that we can actually take that frame, make a picture frame out of it, cut it to size and grind that once again, if in fact you've never got rid of that frame so we can perpetually keep using the material, it'll never hit a landfill. So one of the things I did with the green team was we investigated this and we've come up with a name called better frame, and they do have a website for that. She could see the process frames aren't soldiers yet. It's just the next leg of thing. But it's the idea here where recycled material would go to this company where right now, Chinese, the Chinese are great buyers of this material and they ship it to China to make frames in these frames, come back and we'll have the the discount stores like the targets. And the Walmart has that very cheap plastic frame that, that you see in these stores, that's all made from recycled polystyrene. The only thing about different about Princeton's we do it here in the S. frames a lot nicer. Our plan is to make some frames for awards. A couple of emails through the website, where from colleges is that G we give us sustainability award out and we put in a frame that's unsustainable. So we hope to market it, but he has a really cool part. And he is really where this, you know, this falls into your lap. So to speak as a packaging guy, envision a frame placed into a box, a foam box. It's almost like a phone. Shipped to your house. You'd take the frame out of the box. You hang it on your wall. You have a return label in the box. That frame comes back to us. You're left with zero packaging waste that your house, that box comes back to our warehouse. And we look at this and can we use it again? Great. If we can't in the machine, it goes, let me make a picture frame out of it. That's the concept. And so, and that, and that segues. Boom boxes and, and you know, this ditch dreaded material that people would rather hear fingernail scraping against the chalkboard, the talk styrofoam. When you look at this material, it is astonishing it's properties on shipping, keeping products protected. Then one of the reasons. Yeah. There's a

Cory Connors: 23:05

reason it's been around a hundred percent.

Lou Troiano: 23:09

Right. But no ones, no ones don't want to see on the packaging part mean if you order a, a food product today like an Omaha, right? They're big on, you know, people, Omar steak boxes, right? They come in coolers. I don't, I don't believe that they have a program where you can mail it back to them. And I just don't understand why. So I'd like to start and working with some companies to show. You know, bring it back, I'll take it back. And I can direct it to a couple of different facilities. I have a couple of non-profits that are recycled and foam that would love the material. So that's the next leg of it is to get into the package.

Cory Connors: 23:41

It seems like it's an education issue. It's a, spread the word issue. So how do people get ahold of you? How can we help spur this

Lou Troiano: 23:48

on. I, I appreciate that. Just simply on my website, they can go visit me and take a look at all of the videos that I have on there from all of the places that we put foam. And then, you know, I'm lou@foamcycle.com. Pretty easy to get hold of me

Cory Connors: 24:03

sites from cycle.com, F O A M C Y C L E .com

Lou Troiano: 24:10

correct. That's that's my media present. I really don't do good on Facebook and Twitter, but I do have, but I do have a DeLorean video on my website of myself colleague flying over a landfill that nobody wants to miss. Really. I've had that cough at 38 years. So it is. I get free rides to new customers only. So

Cory Connors: 24:35

that's, that's absolutely an incentive. I love that. Okay, cool. Thank you so much, Lou. I really appreciate your time. I'd like to thank Landsberg Orora for sponsoring the podcast. If you're listening, we can help you with sustainable packaging. We're here for you. Please subscribe to the podcast and share it with your friends. Thank you so much, Lou.

Lou Troiano: 24:57

Great. Thanks. So nice looking you for thank you.