Recycle styro inserts (esp DC)?

Do any of the retailers in the DC area take used shippers? I really hate to trash them. Such a waste.

I usually take them to Weygandts. I’ve also given them to Schneiders in the past.

I burn them.

Out on the terrace?

Problem with those is that in some places it’s illegal to recycle them! Or so I was told. In NYC I gave them to stores and they were happy, but in CA a few people have told me they can’t take them. I never bothered to check the law, but if true, it’s a shame.

Anyway Victor - melt them down with orange oil or acetone and you get a really good super glue.They’re basically air and when you melt a 12 bottle shipper, you get a bit less than a quart of glue, if you happen to need that much at once.

I got into it re the styrofoam inserts with Envoyer. They claim cardboard is too fragile but I get wines from the west coast that is packed with reinforced cardboard and never any issues. It really hurts me to see how much goes into the landfill.

I tend to agree with envoyer; I’m not a fan of the cardboard inserts; I like the styro but would like to see them reused a bunch.

If they want to send me a shipping label to return their shippers, fine with me. Grapes used to do that and gave me a credit for each one I returned.

Big pet peeve of mine. When I used to get my wine deliveries in NJ, my town had a styrofoam recycling bin in the town yard - I would pile a bunch into my SUV and felt pretty good about not adding them to the landfill. Now, where I live in Florida, I cannot find anyplace to take them. I called my town and several nearby towns to ask, and they all told me just to throw them in with my garbage. I just can’t do that so I have stacks taking up way too much room in my garage, hoping I will find a local wine store or someone who will use them.

There used to be a polystyrene manufacturer near Dulles that would accept shippers for recycling. I used to load up the car after each shipping season and bring out a batch, which always humored the workers as I stacked them up on the shipping platform.

They closed up a few years back so the only place to recycle now is the industry organization in Crofton and they’re not really set up to take in a bunch of shippers.

I haven’t found any retailers interested. Please post if you find someone.

I tell neighbors that the smell is New Jersey.

I had my recycle bin rejected for having styrofoam here in San Jose.

Can’t put styrofoam in the recycle bins for pickup here in Howard Co MD. But the landfill has a styrofoam collection dumpster that we take advantage of.

Just two styrofoam chunks can fire up our biggest wok to an unbelievable heat! That explains how our General Tso’s chicken gets so KFC-crispy.

If anybody in the Noo Yawk area has any spare ones for free, our shop will happily take them.

Take mine to Weygandt’s as well.

Neal, Bassins takes them and reuses. I include the box.

My city accepts styro at the recycling center. Just offloaded 3 boxes today.

When I asked about a place near Albany to recycle these, I was told the nearest place was in Springfield, NJ!

I’ve gotten some local merchants to take a few, but the biggest shipper in our area (Empire Wines) will not take them. I don’t know why. They do a ton of shipping.

Retailers and shippers WILL assume liability if a used shipper is destroyed during shipping. We’ve had wine shipped to us in both new and used styro shippers and found they were so badly mis-handled the bottoms were broken out and on a number of occasions, bottles broke through the top of the shipper. We don’t mind used shippers if they are in good condition but still use them for short distance transport or freebie replacements for Wine Check owners.

Both UPS and FedEx don’t want to lose money because of accidents or mishandling, nor have their insurers paying out so much their rates continue to rise. Three quarters of the claims we’ve made with UPS have been a battle and it starts with, “improperly packaged goods.” I watch them load and unload their trucks and I can confirm that all of the relatives of the gorilla from the Samsonite commercial have been employed by UPS and FedEx. If anything, I’m impressed at how much wine is safely delivered, regardless of packaging.

Edit: Forgot that we used to have styro recycle in Napa many years ago. They had chipper like machine that the styro was run through. That went away ten years ago as not cost effective.

Thanks for the input everyone. I took them to Schneiders and they were happy to have them.

I’ve never had a problem finding someone happy to reuse them. Outside a metro area, that might be harder, but that’s never been my situation.