wotimes.com

Styrofoam, long dreaded by environmentalists for its everlasting presence in landfills and natural habitats, is being given new life.

An ambitious vision for helping save the environment through a revolutionary method for recycling Styrofoam and other plastics is on the verge of becoming realized in east Clermont. The ground floor for Blue Earth Solutions is an 11,000-square-foot warehouse located off Highway 50 just west of County Road 455.

In the coming years, founders Paul Slusarczyk and Jim Cohen expect explosive growth with new facilities throughout the United States and the world. Their mission is to eliminate or significantly reduce the global production of polystyrene, which is used to create a wide variety of plastic products, most notably expanded polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam.

"Our goal here is to have the greatest impact possible in reducing our carbon footprint," said Slusarczyk. "When we were given the opportunity to help diminish the overwhelming amount of waste on our planet and recycle it, we couldn't look the other way."

That opportunity came as a chance meeting in February with Harvey Katz, an independent scientist and inventor who developed a non-toxic chemical liquid named StyroSolve. Slusarczyk recalled his amazement upon watching Katz demonstrate how the fluid aggressively breaks down Styrofoam by removing carbon dioxide molecules and transforming it into a gelatinous substance he calls Polygel.

At the Blue Earth Solutions office last week, Slusarczyk re-enacted this process reminiscent of a science project. As he fed handful upon handful of packing noodles into a 12-ounce jar half-filled with StyroSolve, the container never overflowed. After more than a minute of stuffing Styrofoam into the small glass, all that remained was a few ounces of StyroSolve and a mass of Polygel approximately the size of a golf ball. Slusarczyk and Cohen said they were so moved by the potential of this product that they decided to come out of retirement and purchased Katz's patents for StyroSolve. The inventor now works for Blue Earth Solutions in research and development.

The business partners purchased the Clermont warehouse in June and expect to be fully operational by mid-August. During the next month, the facility will be equipped with an assembly line of machinery that will crush Styrofoam and pass 60,000 pounds at a time through a device called an extruder, which consists of nine filters.

"One of the biggest portions of our budget is on filtration," Cohen said.

While inside the extruder, the StyroSolve solution is evaporated off the Polylgel and captured to be re-used on future batches. Upon completing the filtration process, the gel has been transformed into clean, virgin polystyrene, according to Slusarczyk. The substance is then chopped into small, hard pellets ready to be sold to a plastics manufacturer as raw material.

Maximum efficiency and conservation, Cohen said, will be achieved at Blue Earth Solutions.

"Our operating model is to capture 100 percent of both polystyrene and the solvent," he said. "If we put in a pound of Styrofoam, we get a pound of pure, reusable plastic. We are the only company I know of that can do this. "

Blue Earth Solutions plans to acquire its supply of polystyrene for free from large companies throughout the region that otherwise would pay thousands of dollars in disposal fees. Slusarczyk, from Boca Raton, and Cohen, an Orlando resident, said they chose to start their business in Central Florida because of its heavy concentration of high-volume Styrofoam manufacturers and consuming entities, including the Orange County Convention Center, local theme parks and construction sites.

"In order to have the greatest impact on our carbon footprint, we must go after the big projects," Cohen said.

Blue Earth Solutions will provide the option of picking up polystyrene and hauling it back to its plant or delivering a StyroSolve-equipped tractor-trailer truck capable of processing the material on-site. Since StyroSolve reduces Styrofoam by as much as 98 percent, he explained, transporting the substance in its gel form greatly increases fuel efficiency. A wide variety of hard, plastic-based materials, including cellular phones, televisions and many familiar items can also be broken down and recycled, Slusarczyk said, although Styrofoam represents the largest volume of polystyrene waste.

While targeting large, bulk quantities, Blue Earth Solutions will also accept small drop-offs at the warehouse from anyone who'd rather recycle Styrofoam or plastic waste rather than letting it end up in a landfill. Anyone interested in doing so can learn more details online at www.blueearthsolutions.com or by calling 352-729-0150.

Having purchased 2.8 acres at the Clermont site, Blue Earth Solutions has room to triple the size of its facilities to more than 30,000 feet. The company's owners, though, foresee an expansion on a much larger scale. Slusarczyk worked for 15 years with Waste Management and also managed a chain of Blockbuster video franchises in the 1990s. Together with Cohen, who spent his career on Wall Street, the longtime friends are confident they are laying the foundation for a new industry.

With negotiations under way for new Blue Earth plants in Arkansas, Georgia, New York City, Mississippi, Tennessee, Michigan and California, plus international locations including France, Switzerland, Spain, Israel, China and Mexico, Slusarczyk and Cohen expressed passion about needing to spread Styrofoam and plastic-recycling operations around the world. Cohen plans to have 65 branches in operation within three years but added, "we probably won't be here beyond that," explaining he expects the company to be bought out by a larger corporation.

"Although we would probably make a lot more money by continuing to keep the company ourselves," Cohen said, "from a green standpoint, it would be selfish to not sell out to a company that could accelerate the roll-out of this operation.

"We can greatly reduce the need to create new polystyrene, cut the oil consumption needed to produce it and prevent more of it from being dumped into landfills and the environment," he added. "This really is a green thing for both us and our children."