Finnfoam recycling plant enters installation phase – Polystyrene dissolves with fruit-based substance

Family business Finnfoam Oy is building a chemical recycling facility for insulation plastic waste in Salo.

Equipment installations in the solution recycling plant construction project began at the beginning of the year.

In 2019, Finnfoam launched the FF Recycling Bag service, through which the company collects plastic insulation waste from construction sites and hardware stores.

The Salo factory reuses the collected waste as raw material for its insulation products. The factory's internal insulation waste stream is also recycled.

Back to raw material

Plastic waste collected through bag collection is often sandy, making it unsuitable for mechanical recycling. Therefore, the company has developed a chemical solution recycling process with partners such as Brightplus Oy.

The fruit-based solvent dissolves polystyrene insulation into a liquid form. The solution is cleaned of impurities. The resulting pure polystyrene can be used again as a raw material in insulation products.

“Polystyrene insulation can be recycled in an energy-efficient way for the same purpose as it was originally used,” says Finnfoam’s Director of Development and Marketing. Asso Erävuoma.

He told the November seminar on Recycling Plastics in Construction that the company is also developing bioplastics from soy molasses, a by-product of soy processing. A pilot-scale factory project will start at the end of this year in Uusikaupunki.

Text: Elina Saarinen/ Uusiouutiset-magazine

Photo: Finnfoam. Plastic insulation is collected using the Recycling Bag service developed by Finnfoam.