Well I did it, I found a place to recycle my huge amounts of polystyrene! It was still a bit of a mission but I'm very pleased to say that I didn't have to drive across town to Fitzroy as I found a place on my side of town.
At first I thought, maybe the place I bought the bed from would be able to recycle it. I was sure that with huge amounts of polystyrene they would have measures in place to recycle as much waste as possible. I was hopeful at first when I called the store and spoke to a friendly guy who thought that it was recycled at the warehouse as all there waste is collected and sent to the warehouse for disposal. He gave me the number. I called and in a strong Aussie accent I was informed with a 'NUP' followed by "who told you that?!" As though I was raving mad for asking and suggested that I should be able to put it in my normal garbage bin. When I told him I was trying to recycle it his response was 'huh?' He had absolutely no idea that it could be recycled.
So, deflated I thought if a big store like that doesn't recycle it's polystyrene is it really worth calling the next big chain, getting the number for their warehouse and getting another "NUP" response? Probably not.
Hmmmm...... I got down to some investigatory thinking, then it hit me. RIGHT! The Council must have some idea where I can recycle this stuff in our area, surely? I got onto the webpage for the Kingston Council. Yes they did have some links. A good resource for Melbourne is the Metropolitan Waste Management Group. They are a company that works with the government and councils to educate people about waste and they have some links to places where you can recycle stuff. I have added their link to this blog if you want to check them out.
The closest place was the Monash waste transfer station about 25 minutes from my house. Not bad. Now to get it there. It was a rainy miserable day when we packed up the car, squeezed Seb our son in the back with all the polystyrene and some cardboard and headed out. We had decided that the baby booster seat which my old cat had used as a bed could go too as it was made of polystyrene. So there we all were, the baby seat on Brendan's lap squeaking away as it rubbed on the dashboard and little Sebby hidden from view by mounds of polystyrene and the rain bouncing around outside. We pulled up to the gate of the waste transfer station and the lady took one look at us, pointed to the baby booster seat and said "You're not throwing that in the polystyrene recycling". "uh, ok" I said taken aback and not really sure why we couldn't but a bit afraid to ask as she scowled at me. I guess it is compacted polystyrene and this must make a difference.
There we were, dedicated to the cause, Brendan and I putting every speck of polystyrene from the car into the recycling bay as the rain pattered around us. We had made the effort and it had been our little family adventure and now with all the polystyrene safe and sound in it's new home we could head home to our lovely spacious garage that was clean and polystyrene free.
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