View this article on Business Wire. 

Epsilyte, a leading North American producer of advanced materials, was awarded the Excellence in EPS Recycling award at this week’s EPS EXPO in Orlando, Florida, on Monday, March 13, 2023. This award recognizes outstanding achievements in foam recycling and enhancements in innovation and technology.

Chad Zielinski, Epsilyte’s Research Supervisor, worked extensively to adapt recycled EPS produced by Epsilyte for use in the safety helmet end market (like bicycle and ski helmets). Epsilyte’s advanced EPS material (Epsilyte’s POLYSOURCE 225), when used as the padding in safety helmets, has three primary advantages for use as an end market for recycled EPS:

1) The product is black in color
2) The product is not (and is not required to be) FDA-approved and
3) The product has higher density-allowing for a wider operating window

Since helmets protect the wearer and thus sustain life in the event of an accident, Epsilyte knows that quality cannot be compromised when including recycled content in the EPS used for helmet padding. Chad successfully engineered a solution that includes 50% recycled content in these applications without sacrificing quality.

Epsilyte recognizes that post-consumer recycled (PCR) EPS is variable. Its system accounts for the variable properties of the 50% PCR and offsets and normalizes its performance by running the virgin material through a propriety molecular weight engineering tool.

Many customers have already tested and qualified Epsilyte’s POLYSOURCE 225 material in various helmet models. The commercialization of POLYSOURCE 225 with recycled content was critical in Epsilyte recycling over 1 million pounds of EPS in 2022. Epsilyte plans to leverage this success with even higher goals for producing recycled EPS in 2023.