Reuse:

Styrofoam coolers, Styrofoam slabs, soft Styro for packing
Use coolers to insulate your groceries in the car.
> The Buy Nothing mobile app enables you to freely offer your unwanted items to your neighbors on Bainbridge Island and beyond.
> The Craigslist mobile app and website enable you to give away stuff under their For Sale > Free Stuff category
> Facebook has numerous groups for giving away things to your Bainbridge Island neighbors, including:
—Bainbridge Box Exchange
—Bainbridge Freely Given
—Buy Nothing Bainbridge North, WA
—Buy Nothing Bainbridge Central, WA
—Buy Nothing Bainbridge South, WA
—Free On Bainbridge
—Free On The Rock
> The Freecycle website

Recycle:

Kitsap County Solid Waste holds a free Styrofoam collection once a year, usually in April.

Options for year-round Styrofoam recycling:

  • Subscribe or find a friend with a Ridwell subscription (there are over 1300 households on Bainbridge that subscribe) and recycle through them (there may be a fee). People have found success in finding a Ridwell subscriber by asking on Facebook's Bainbridge Islanders or FB's Zero Waste Bainbridge.
    Here’s what kind of Styrofoam Ridwell takes.
  • Styro Recycle in Kent accepts Styrofoam Monday-Friday, 8-4:30pm, for free. Go to their website to see what they do and do not take.
  • DTG (Recovery 1) in Tacoma accepts Styrofoam Monday-Saturday for a fee ($7/cu yd, quoted 11-5-2024)

Styrofoam preparation guidelines:

  • Remove all tape and stickers
  • Must be clean and dry
  • Bag peanuts separately from block packaging
  • No debris in the bag
  • Do not include compostable peanuts (usually cylindrical in shape; if they stick together when moistened, they are compostable — dissolve at home)
  • Must be #6 EPS foam (it snaps and has beads) – block packaging, coolers, take-out clamshells and cups, meat trays (not tan!)
  • Separate white from colored
  • Separate block packaging from food ware

Styrofoam not accepted:

  • Wet or moldy
  • Items contaminated with rodent droppings or other biohazards
  • Insulation (e.g., pink or blue stuff or spray-in foam)
  • Sealed foam (e.g., Insta-pak)
  • Foil-lined foam
  • Hot tub and dock foam
  • Beach foam
  • Floral foam (green blocks of sponge-like foam)
  • Styro with glue, attached cardboard or screws
  • Foam microbeads
  • Tan meat trays
  • Soft, flexible foam (EPE)
  • Futon mattresses

Rethink:

There are many alternatives to using Styrofoam block packaging and peanuts, which take hundreds of years to degrade and easily become litter. If your product comes packaged in the stuff, write to the company to ask them to switch to packaging that is easily compostable (e.g., compostable peanuts, molded paper, mushroom packaging) or easily recyclable (e.g., cardboard, air pillows).

Last updated 4/10/2025