EPS (Expanded Polystyrene)
There are many materials that utilize air pockets as part of their structure; by doing so they reduce the quantity of material and so reduce the weight of that part. Clearly these qualities are valuable in reducing carbon footprints. However, the main issue with expanded polystyrene (EPS), approximately 98 per cent air, and expanded polypropylene (EPP) is that they are used as bulky packaging for transient types of products, which is extremely difficult to get rid of.
One way of looking at this issue is to look at the timespan of the usage against the time it takes to make the oil/plastic and the time it will take the plastic to degrade. For example, it takes millions of years to produce the ingredients from which petroleum-based ...
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