Check with the company that is manufacturing your block they may be able to bring it back in and regrind for packing material products.

In S. Indiana of all places we had ready access to a dedicated EPS recycling center, didn't know until we googled for it.

You can check with your local landscape supply, some will grind the EPS into their potting mix soil.

I remember many years back when another ICF dist. told me they ran there scrap threw a branch shredder and donated it to Habitat for loose fill ceiling insulation, what a great idea if it is that easy. Unfortunately we don't have EPS recycling here either.

Dave

Great Idea. After touring an EPS manufacturer, I learned that most EPS products are manufactured with some amount of recycled EPS. So, I would think that they would welcome some 'free' EPS to include in their products. This particular manufacturer produced EPS for both SIPS and ICF's.

check with plastic recyclers in your area they should know someone or take it them selves.

 

we break ours down and take it to our local recycler that accepts it. you dont get much for it. but it pays for the gas to take it there. :)

Some manufacturers will take back the scrap- providing it's completely sterile(no coffee cups etc.)and their own materials.
Wall Tech's right, It was Tim A.K.A. O.K.Blocker's post from way back to do the shredder thing- and it does work.
Take care All,

C.Kerr

Being essentially Napalm left over from 'Nam :-)
You can take gasoline and place the EPS into it.  It dissolves amazing amounts of EPS in a small amount of Gasoline.
Save the resultant slurry/syrup in a sealed container.
The next time you have a leak around a flashing or in a valley just open the container, pour the liquid out into the general area.  It will run wherever water runs and will expand back to EPs and seal the leak until proper repairs can be done.
OR--if some third world pipsqueak country will not Kowtow properly just use it as napalm again.

Are you serious?  Will this work as a sealer on eps or flashing. Will it act like napalm on the building and just be a fire hazard. 

GO to Google, type in napalm.  What is used from Vietnam days til now is NP2 or Napalm B
it is a mixture of Gas, polystyrene and benzene
EPS is an offshoot from naplam research.
Burn a pile of scraps and then have a vietnam vet take a look--he will recognize the smell, the colour of the flame and the billowing clouds of black smoke.
Try what I described carefully.  It has a higher flashpoint than gasoline but does burn longer and hotter.
The positive use I have described is true and I have done it.
"Am I serious" ?? 
Yes, albeit somewhat cynical.  I find it mildly amusing that America's answer to firewood stick construction uses such a component with such a nefarious history.

We currently re-use our scrap block in other projects. Panelizing off site allows any of our block larger than 8" to be used in a wall section. Scrap smaller than 8" gets broke down to smaller sizes, tabs are saved, and double bagged and sent to to recycle center for disposal. This maximizes block usage and helps our bottom line.

My boss and I had left over pieces of blocks from 2 years of projects. We had it stored up in a wharehouse. We finally bought a wood chipper and ground it down and put it in bags. Quad lock in Albequerque was happy to buy it from us. It was probably 5-10 thousand pounds of chipped, mostly arxx, foam and they bought it for $1,500.00. We never found a recycling center that would take the webs.

Have access to scrap ICFs with 2-3/4" eps. Thinking of cutting off ties flush to foam and using foam adhesive to attach to interior of concrete block crawlspace walls, seal gaps and also seal between floor joists at the exterior. A bit of labor but I have the time and it will put scrap to good use. Also have scraps of drywall to glue to foam. Will adhesive be sufficient to keep both eps and drywall in place? Will also cover crawlspace dirt floor with a vapor barrier.

Basement walls, also thought about gluing eps to basement walls and covering with some gigicrete or like coating for fire protection. Thoughts? Dave

Composite ICF manufacturers can use it.

Don't have quantities I believe would be of interest to a composite ICF manufacturer if one was available near Wichita, KS. Would foam adhesive form a sufficiently strong bond to CMU or concrete?

Hopefully your scrapes aren't big enough to do a decent job of covering a wall. Cempo, makes a composite ICF and I think they were going to build a plant in KS.

For CMU or poured concrete walls use InSoFast, it is a great product and attach it with PL300, I think foam would expand and push it from the wall. InSoFast is like one panel of an ICF, but made for what you are describing.

InSoFast  http://www.insofast.com/Installation.html looks like great product for exposed CMU and concrete walls.  Fufills the concept I was talking about using ICF scraps:  insulates, provides a web surface to attach to (light weight items only), recycles scrap.   Thanks for mentioning. 

Also have some scraps of lite-deck that I could rip and glue to crawlspace walls.  Wouldn't need webs in the crawl space. 
 
Using scraps are primarily for DIYers who can take the time to make the their homes a bit more comfortable.  Although I could contact various ICF installers and take usable jobsite scrap off their hands if I needed more, if they are efficient there won't be a lot of scrap to begin with.  So the goal would be to contact the inefficient builders, but do it fast because they probably won't be around long!     

View the EPS Recycling Info by the Association of Foam Packaging Recyclers - look at the PDF file for drop-off locations. Most will require you to separate the EPS from embedded ties.

Best regards,
Georg Kustermann
www.quadlock.com

Glad to see a concerted effort to foster EPS recycling. Unfortunately, the closest EPS drop off is 3 hrs away in Kansas City, none in Oklahoma and a couple in Missouri. But as the website encourages, one could start a local recycling program. Thanks for the info. Dave