NEW ADDITION — Mark McVey, Belmont County coordinator for the JB Green Team, reflected on the addition of expandable polystyrene, a material many call Styrofoam, to those recycled by the agency during an announcement Tuesday at its recycling center at the Jefferson County Industrial Park. -- Warren Scott

STEUBENVILLE — Residents of Jefferson and Belmont counties soon will be able to dispose of certain containers and packaging material comprised of expandable polystyrene, or EPS, through a pilot program launched Tuesday by the JB Green Team.

The hard, white material that usually can be broken by hand is referred to regularly as Styrofoam.

But there are many producers of such material besides DuPont, which owns that trademarked name and doesn’t make the small, disposable cups so often associated with it, noted Belmont County Commissioner Jerry Echemann.

Echemann serves on the board for the bi-county recycling agency and was among several of its leaders on hand at its headquarters at the Jefferson County Industrial Park to announce the new development.

Anita Petrella, its executive director, said five bins designated for EPS will be placed in each of the two counties in the near future.

She noted the material has been used in protective packaging for televisions and other appliances, glass bottles and other fragile products and in take-out containers for restaurants.

Petrella said whatever the use, residents should check the material for the number 6, surrounded by the triangular arrow pattern indicating it is a recyclable material.

“We will be accepting food containers as long as you don’t leave a lot of ketchup or sauce. But please try to clean them out the best you’re able to,” she told attendees.

Bins designated specifically for EPS will be found at existing recycling drop-off locations at the Fort Steuben Mall and in Tiltonsville, Toronto, Adena and Bergholz in Jefferson County and at the old fairgrounds and near state Route 331 in St. Clairsville and in Martins Ferry, Shadyside and Barnesville in Belmont County.

Petrella said the material can be recycled as insulation, surfboards and lightweight picture frames as well as new packaging material.

Bob Dever, production manager for Atlas Molded Plastics, the Toledo-based company that will receive EPS collected by the JB Green Team, added it also has been used to create ice chests used for food and medical uses, including the transport of human organs for transplant operations.

Dever oversees 15 EPS facilities in the U.S. and in Mexico that produce more than 12 million pounds of the material each year.

He said the company has been recycling EPS for at least 60 years, usually collected from manufacturing industries that use it, but community-based recycling programs are newer, with the JB Green Team the first to start one in Ohio.

“You guys are the first. That’s huge,” Dever told the many on hand for the announcement.

He added he hopes the idea will spread to other communities in the Buckeye State.

Scott Fabian, chairman of the JB Green Team board, said he’d like to see drop-off bins at other locations in the two counties, pending local response.

Those on hand for the announcement were invited inside the JB Green Team’s Recycling Center, a large warehouse used for temporary storage of recyclable material.

There they viewed the operation of a foam densifier, a piece of equipment about the size of a clothes washer used to compact EPS into snake-like ingots.

Petrella said it takes about 90 pounds of EPS to form one ingot.

Louis Troiano, founder and owner of Foamcycle of New Jersey, maker of the compacting equipment, dropped an ingot to the concrete floor, its loud rattle revealing its density and weight.

Staff with Foamcycle said the machine is capable of compacting about 200 pounds of the material in an hour.

Several children on hand were recruited to deliver to the equipment’s operator strips and chunks of EPS of various sizes that were collected by JB Green Team staff from multiple area businesses.

Petrella said about $150,000 has been expended for the new endeavor, including about $84,000 for the compactor.

She said she hopes it will further the agency’s efforts to keep materials that can be reused from occupying landfills.

Mark McVey, Belmont County coordinator for the JB Green Team, said he’s excited to add EPS to the many materials the agency collects and recycles.

Funded with a portion of county property taxes, tipping fees paid by local landfills and grants, the JB Green Team also recycles paper, cardboard, glass, plastic jars and jugs and aluminum and other metal cans at its designated drop-off sites.

The agency also is planning special collections of hazardous household materials and electronics for later this year.

Jefferson County Commissioner Tony Morelli, who also serves on the JB Green Team board, was among several who applauded Petrella for proposing the new collection.

He noted the commission has made plans to build a 50,000-square-foot spec building at the Jefferson County Park in hopes of attracting another business there.

Morelli said keeping the greater community clean and litter-free, as encouraged by Petrella, also will help to make it more appealing to potential new businesses.