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Launched in January 2022 in Austria, the EPSolutely project was created to address one of the most significant environmental challenges faced by the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) industry: developing a sustainable, circular economy. Led by Fraunhofer Austria, this research initiative brings together multiple stakeholders, including several members of EUMEPS, to find scalable, efficient solutions for recycling EPS waste, from packaging, construction and demolition sites.

The project’s cross-industry collaboration underscores its commitment to closing the loop on EPS waste, ensuring that materials from construction and packaging can be recycled and reused in new products. This approach is essential for significantly reducing the reliance on virgin materials and aligns with the European Union’s vision for a circular economy and sustainable resource management.


Sectors Involved: From Construction to Packaging

One of the strengths of the EPSolutely project is its ability to address the use of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) across multiple sectors and through the entire value chain, ensuring a wide-reaching impact. While the construction industry remains the primary focus, with EPS being extensively used as insulation due to its lightweight and excellent thermal properties, the packaging sector also plays a crucial role. In both areas, EPSolutely is paving the way for a circular economy by creating scalable recycling systems.

In construction, EPS is commonly used in insulation panels, and waste occurs primarily in the form of offcuts from insulation boards and demolition debris. These materials have traditionally been difficult to recycle due to contamination or their bulk, but EPSolutely’s pilot projects have demonstrated that both insulation offcuts and demolition waste can be efficiently collected and recycled into new materials. By ensuring proper handling and recycling of these materials, EPSolutely is helping the construction sector significantly reduce its environmental footprint.

The packaging sector also stands to benefit from the innovations driven by EPSolutely. EPS is widely used to protect fragile items during transport, and large amounts of packaging waste are generated by industries such as electronics and home goods. Through enhanced collection and sorting processes, EPSolutely ensures that this waste can be processed into new EPS forms, minimizing the environmental impact of packaging waste and closing the loop for EPS in this sector as well.

By addressing both the construction and packaging sectors, EPSolutely ensures its impact is broad and comprehensive. This multi-sector approach not only maximizes resource efficiency but also demonstrates how a circular economy for EPS can be achieved across various industries.

With these sectors at the forefront, the project tackles a range of environmental and economic challenges to make EPS recycling sustainable and scalable.


The Challenges EPSolutely Addresses

HIRSCH Porozell EPSolutely DI Harald Kogler CEO HIRSCH Servo Gruppe mit MitarbeiterThe EPSolutely project tackles both environmental and economic opportunities, highlighting the vast potential for recycling Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). As EPS is widely used in construction and packaging due to its lightweight, durable, and insulating properties, the challenge lies in extending its lifecycle through efficient recycling, allowing it to be reused rather than discarded.

EPSolutely pioneers innovative recycling solutions that transform EPS waste into valuable resources. By promoting advanced recycling technologies, the project integrates EPS into a sustainable circular economy. This approach reduces reliance on virgin materials while enhancing resource efficiency across multiple industries.


Environmental Opportunities

EPS, known for its versatility and effectiveness, requires careful management post-use to ensure its potential is fully harnessed. The EPSolutely project focuses on maximizing the lifecycle of EPS through innovative recycling techniques that repurpose the material, reducing waste and ensuring continuous reintroduction into the production cycle.

By embracing circular economy principles, EPSolutely strives to find ways for EPS to be recycled and reused, significantly lowering environmental impact. Through processes such as solvent-based and mechanical recycling, even EPS used in more complex applications, such as construction and demolition, can be efficiently recycled and reintegrated. This not only minimizes environmental impact but also supports sustainable resource management for future generations.


Economic Opportunities

Steinbacher GF EPSolutely Daniel MuellerFrom an economic perspective, one of the primary challenges in EPS recycling is the logistics of collection and transportation. Since EPS is composed of 98% air, it is bulky and can be costly to transport despite its lightweight nature. Effectively coordinating the recovery of EPS waste from various construction sites and processing it into high-quality recycled material requires streamlined systems.

To address this, EPSolutely has developed a national collection system, which is currently being tested in Austria, utilizing a web application that coordinates the pickup and recycling of EPS waste from construction sites. This digital approach optimises logistics, making waste collection both efficient and scalable. By reducing transportation costs and ensuring that waste is collected before it becomes too contaminated, EPSolutely creates an economically viable recycling process.

Another economic challenge is ensuring that EPS waste collected from various sites is properly cleaned and sorted before recycling. Contaminated waste cannot always be processed into high-quality recycled EPS. EPSolutely has developed systems that ensure waste is cleaned and sorted effectively. Pilot projects have demonstrated the feasibility of collecting, cleaning, and recycling EPS from both construction offcuts and packaging waste, converting it into valuable material that can be reused in new products.

By tackling both environmental and economic challenges, EPSolutely demonstrates that EPS recycling can be sustainable and cost-effective, offering scalable solutions that are now moving from research to real-world implementation.


Methodology: Simple and Effective

The success of the EPSolutely project lies in its emphasis on clear and scalable recycling methods that can be easily implemented across industries and regions. The project employs two primary techniques: mechanical recycling and solvent-based recycling, both of which have been proven to be practical and efficient solutions for EPS waste management.

One of the core methods is mechanical recycling, a straightforward process where EPS waste is broken down into small granules. This technique is especially suited for clean EPS waste, such as offcuts from construction sites, where contamination is minimal. Once processed, the granulated EPS can be reused in manufacturing, reducing the need for virgin materials and lowering the environmental footprint of the construction sector. Mechanical recycling is particularly valuable because it is cost-effective, requires minimal processing steps, and can be applied across large volumes of waste.

Within the project, solvent-based recycling was explored as a potential solution for more contaminated EPS, such as that found in demolition debris or industrial packaging. This process involved dissolving EPS in a solvent to separate the polystyrene from other materials like adhesives, dirt, or mixed contaminants. While this innovative method demonstrated the possibility of recycling EPS that would otherwise be too contaminated for traditional methods, it is no longer being actively used within the project. Nevertheless, the development of processes to enable solvent-based techniques highlighted the project’s commitment to addressing even the most complex EPS waste streams and integrating them into a circular economy..

The simplicity and scalability of collection systems and mechanical recycling techniquesensure that they can be implemented across Austria and, eventually, in other European countries. These methods are designed to be cost-efficient and easy to adopt, making them accessible to a wide range of stakeholders in the EPS industry. By using these recycling techniques, EPSolutely provides a practical blueprint for other regions seeking to reduce their reliance on landfilling or incinerating EPS waste.

These recycling methods form the backbone of EPSolutely’s approach, enabling the project to focus on specific fields where EPS recycling is most needed, such as construction, demolition, and packaging.


Fields of Focus: Construction, Demolition, and Packaging

© Fraunhofer Austria - EPS Demolition Working GroupThe EPSolutely project addresses three key areas where Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) waste is generated: construction offcuts, demolition waste, and packaging waste. These fields represent the largest sources of EPS waste, and through targeted pilot projects, EPSolutely has demonstrated that each type of waste can be effectively collected, sorted, and recycled into valuable products.

Demolition Waste Recycling

The recycling of EPS from demolition sites is often one of the most challenging aspects due to the presence of mixed debris, such as adhesives, concrete, and other construction materials, as well as the inclusion of HBCDD, a bromine-based flame retardant that was commonly used in EPS before being banned. This additive poses significant challenges to recycling efforts. Within the EPSolutely project, pilot trials demonstrated that heavily contaminated EPS can be effectively managed using advanced sorting processes. While solvent-based recycling techniques, such as CreaSolv, were explored to address HBCDD-contaminated EPS, these methods were limited to specific cases. The project’s work highlights the need for innovative approaches to separate, clean, and ultimately recycle EPS waste from demolished buildings, providing a potential pathway to address the large volumes of EPS waste generated during building renovations or demolitions

Construction Offcuts

Construction sites generate substantial amounts of EPS waste in the form of offcuts from insulation boards. These offcuts are typically clean and easier to recycle compared to demolition waste. EPSolutely has addressed this through the development of a web application that simplifies the collection process. Through the app, construction workers can easily schedule pickups for EPS waste, ensuring it is efficiently gathered and transported back to their original production facilities. Once processed, the recycled EPS is reintegrated into production, effectively closing the loop and supporting a sustainable, circular economy model.

By closing the loop on EPS insulation materials, EPSolutely enables the construction industry to reduce waste, reuse materials, and lower its reliance on new EPS production. This system not only benefits the environment but also reduces costs for construction companies.

Packaging Waste Recycling

Although packaging waste presents fewer contamination challenges than construction waste, it still requires careful handling and sorting. EPSolutely has focused on improving the recycling process for packaging materials, particularly for sectors like electronics and home goods, which generate significant amounts of EPS waste. The project's pilot trials have shown that mechanical recycling is an effective method for transforming packaging waste into new EPS products. By addressing the logistics of collection and sorting, EPSolutely ensures that the environmental impact of EPS packaging is minimized, and valuable materials are kept within the economy rather than being discarded.

Having focused on these key areas, EPSolutely has made significant progress through pilot projects and innovative recycling processes, reaching important milestones that lay the foundation for scaling up the initiative.


Project Milestones and Future Growth: Scaling Up in Austria

Since its inception in January 2022, the EPSolutely project has made remarkable progress toward creating a circular economy for Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). Through a series of pilot projects, the project has proven the viability of scalable recycling methods and laid the groundwork for future expansion.

Key Milestones Achieved

  1. Launch of the EPSolutely Web App
    One of the project’s most significant accomplishments has been the development and implementation of the web application. This app has revolutionized the collection process for EPS waste, allowing construction companies to easily request pickups for EPS offcuts and waste generated on-site. By digitizing this process, EPSolutely has made it easier to track, collect, and recycle EPS efficiently. The web app, launched in September 2024, is now being rolled out across Austria while ongoing trials show great success in simplifying logistics and improving the recycling rate for EPS.
  2. Pilot Trials for Recycling Methods
    Through various pilot trials, EPSolutely has demonstrated the effectiveness of mechanical recycling and solvent-based recycling for both construction and packaging waste. These trials have shown that EPS can be efficiently recycled into new products, even when it is contaminated by adhesives or other construction debris. The project's success in recycling EPS from demolition sites has been particularly notable, overcoming one of the most challenging waste streams in the EPS lifecycle.
  3. Creation of a National Collection System
    Another major milestone is the establishment of a national collection system for EPS waste in Austria. This system ensures that EPS waste is efficiently gathered from construction sites and packaging facilities and transported to recycling centres. By coordinating efforts across multiple sectors and industries, EPSolutely has laid the foundation for a closed-loop recycling system that reduces the environmental footprint of EPS.

Scaling Up: What’s Next for EPSolutely

© Austrotherm Gruppe - Dr Heimo Pascher, Managing Director of Austrotherm in front of the Austrotherm Recycling Bus at the Austrotherm plant in Purbach, at the start of the Austria-wide EPSolutely collection project.As the project nears its official conclusion in December 2024, the next step will be to expand these successful initiatives by engaging more companies within EPSolutely and encouraging them to contribute additional offcuts, further supporting a closed-loop recycling model. The expansion of the web app to more companies and construction sites is a key priority. By increasing participation in the national collection system, the project aims to ensure that even more EPS waste is captured and recycled.

Additionally, logistical improvements and continued investment in recycling technology will be critical as the project moves into its next phase. The goal is to make the recycling process as seamless and cost-effective as possible while ensuring that high-quality recycled EPS materials can re-enter the market at competitive prices.

Looking ahead, EPSolutely also has the potential to serve as a model for other European countries looking to adopt circular economy practices for EPS. By showcasing the successful integration of innovative recycling methods, coordinated logistics, and digital solutions, the project offers a roadmap for how industries can work together to create a sustainable future for EPS.

The EPSolutely project stands as a pioneering initiative in the push towards a circular economy for Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). Launched in January 2022 and spearheaded by Fraunhofer Austria, the project has made significant strides in addressing the environmental and economic challenges associated with EPS waste, particularly in the construction and packaging sectors. Through a combination of mechanical and solvent-based recycling methods, EPSolutely has demonstrated that even heavily contaminated EPS waste can be efficiently recycled and reintroduced into the production cycle.

The development of the web application for EPS collection has revolutionized the way EPS waste is managed, making it easier to track and recycle materials across construction sites and packaging facilities. This digital solution, alongside the creation of a national collection system in Austria, has laid the groundwork for a closed-loop recycling system, significantly reducing the environmental impact of EPS.

As the project moves forward, its focus will be on scaling up these successful initiatives across Austria and potentially other European countries. With the project’s conclusion set for December 2024, the expansion of the national collection system and continued investment in recycling technologies are key priorities. EPSolutely is not just a solution for Austria but also a model for the entire European EPS industry, offering a clear roadmap for how industries can collaborate to create a sustainable, circular future for EPS.

By successfully combining innovative recycling methods, coordinated logistics, and digital tools, EPSolutely demonstrates that EPS can be both economically viable and environmentally sustainable—a solution that other regions can look to as they adopt circular economy practices.


Participating Companies

EPSolutely is a collaborative effort involving key players across multiple industries. Companies actively contributing to the project include:

  • Austrotherm GmbH
  • Flatz GmbH
  • HIRSCH Porozell GmbH
  • Steinbacher Dämmstoff GmbH
  • Lindner-Recyclingtech GmbH
  • LuSt Malereibetrieb & Vollwärmeschutz GmbH
  • Saubermacher Dienstleistungs AG
  • LIEBHERR-Hausgeräte Lienz GmbH
  • O.Ö. Landes-Abfallverwertungsunternehmen GmbH
  • PORR Umwelttechnik GmbH
  • Sunpor Kunststoff GmbH
  • XXXLutz KG

Together with Fraunhofer Austria, these companies play an essential role in innovating EPS recycling, driving forward the development of a circular economy.

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