Fun fact: "Styrofoam" is actually just a brand name! The white material making up your coffee cup is actually called expanded polystyrene (EPS) and it's doing a number of things to the environment…
What is Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)?
Polystyrene is actually just another type of plastic. It can be expanded into the foam material that we all know as "Styrofoam" by expanding it with 95% air. It is often used for packaging fragile products, or insulating hot food and beverages.
In the U.S. alone, the amount of polystyrene cups used each year would circle the Earth426 times… that's almost 18 million miles of Styrofoam cups!
Styrofoam is a big part of the plastic problem in our oceans. Being 95% air, its buoyancy allows it to float down waterways, eventually making it to the ocean where it gets broken down into smaller pieces and ingested by marine life.
Lightweight Styrofoam is easily carried away by wind and often ends up in places other than the landfill. Unfortunately, rogue Styrofoam ends up littering streets and beaches, clogging storm pipes, and harming animals. In order to protect wildlife, Antarctica has prohibited polystyrene.
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