Austin, TX Rotary Club Collects, Recycles City’s Styrofoam to Keep It Out of Landfills

Austin-Southwest, TX. Rotary Clubs holds a monthly event to collect Styrofoam so that it can be properly recycled.

The Rotary Club holds its events on the first Saturday of each month where the club collects, cleans, and dries Styrofoam from the community. The material is then recycled to Austin’s Recycle & Reuse Drop-off Center.

"If you look around, there's a lot of need. Our primary objective is giving to the community because we believe there are things with bigger purpose than just us," said Holly De Leon, director of the club's board. "Environmental issues should be on everyone's radar," she said.

Beth Long, the club’s vice president, developed the Styrofoam event idea and started the project in October 2023. The project supports the club’s commitment to environmental protection and has already collected more than 500 pounds of Styrofoam.

"That's a lot, considering how light Styrofoam actually is," Long said.

Styrofoam is notorious for sitting in landfills for hundreds of years before it fully decomposes.

"The only way you can effectively get rid of Styrofoam is taking it to the reuse center." De Leon said.

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