Monash's mountain of polystyrene waste will soon become a molehill following the trial and purchase of a polystyrene compactor for the Clayton campus.
The compactor, branded the Hungry Giant, is a purposebuilt machine that reduces polystyrene to around five percent of its original volume, as the images below show.
Last year, the University recycled around 500m3 of polystyrene enough to fill a shipping container every three weeks. The full containers were then transported on a 30 kilometre roundtrip from the campus to the recycler and back.
The new compactor will allow the University to store cheap uggs a lot more polystyrene waste for a longer time, cutting the greenhouse emissions from its collection and transport by at least 75%.
Facilities and Services trialled the compactor for around two months and it proved so successful that the Office of Environmental Sustainability agreed to buy it. The compactor is located in the loading bay of the Menzies building but it will soon move to a central location on campus. This will allow all groups with polystyrene waste to easily access the compactor, and get squashing.