Fast Fact #1
	Polystyrene may be best known for its foam coffee cups, but most polystyrene is used to make rigid durable products, such as television and computer cabinets, appliances, toys, compact disc "jewel cases" and audiocassette cases.

Fast Fact #2
	All polystyrene packaging comprises only a tiny fraction of the material that goes into our landfills. In fact, less than one percent by weight of the total municipal solid waste disposed is polystyrene. Paper and paperboard products make up the largest category of material (about 31 percent) disposed in our landfills.(1)

Fast Fact #3

No chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are used in the manufacture of any polystyrene foam packaging products in the United States and have not been since 1990. In fact, most polystyrene foam products never were made with CFCs. Those few that did use CFCs comprised a very small portion of U.S. CFC use. By 1990, those few polystyrene manufacturers that did use them had announced the voluntary phase-out of CFCs.(2)

Fast Fact #4
	The thermal insulating ability of polystyrene foam contributes to the success of programs such as "Meals on Wheels," which serve millions of senior Americans.

Fast Fact #5
	Very little of the waste discarded in today's modern, highly engineered landfills biodegrades. Because degradation of materials creates potentially harmful liquid and gaseous by-products that could contaminate groundwater and air, today's landfills are designed to minimize contact with air and water required for degradation, thereby practically eliminating the degradation of waste.(3)

Fast Fact #6

The manufacture of all polystyrene, to make both durable and packaging products, uses a fraction of one percent of the nation's natural gas and petroleum. (4) (1) "Municipal Solid Waste in the United States 1999 Facts and Figures," prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by Franklin Associates Ltd., July 2001. (2) "Statement of Support for The Foodservice Packaging Institute's Fully Halogenated Chlorofluorocarbon Voluntary Phaseout Program," Natural Resources Defense Council/Environmental Defense Fund/Friends of the Earth, April 1988. (3) "Rubbish! The Archeology of Garbage," William Rathje and Cullen Murphy, 1989. (4) "Petroleum Supply Annual -- 1997," U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, June 1998 and "Annual Energy Review -- 1997," U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, July 1998.