Dive Brief:

• A hospital in Maryland has installed a machine that crushes styrofoam, creating a 15 inch, 40 pound cylinder that can be shipped to the Dart Container Corp. to be recycled.
• The Baltimore Medical Center in Glen Burnie, uses 100,000 polystyrene cups, bowls and trays at the hospital annually. The healthcare facility recycled 240 pounds of foam in the machines's first month of use. 
• The machine costs $295 per month to lease, but the hospital says it is saving money.

Dive Insight:

Dart Container is the largest manufacturer of foam items. The company transforms the polystyrene it receives into consumer products such as picture frames, toys and crown molding. The company has been outspoken in its fight against the polystyrene ban in the Big Apple, even going so far as to offer to pay New York City for its styrofoam, to avoid a ban on polystyrene products. Massachusetts proposed and implemented a similar ban on the material.