Recycling at the MMS Facility

Photo Courtesy of Yu Yang

During the course of my lifetime, the shipping/packaging industry has changed a lot. As consumers request sturdier packaging and greener shipping options, things change. I feel like we have made great strides on the materials we use to ship our packages out. However, we still receive packages with materials such as Styrofoam, which our local recycling facilities are not equipped to take.

This leaves us with very few options. We can ship it to a facility that can process Styrofoam (which is an additional cost), we can send it to the landfill (which does not satisfy us in the slightest), or we can compost it. Now before you claim I have not yet had my morning cup of coffee and I must be crazy thinking that Styrofoam can compost, allow me to reassure you. I have my morning cup of joe and yes, Styrofoam can be composted. Now it is not something you can simply toss into the compost heap in the garden. Instead you will need to recruit a powerful ally of Mother Nature. I would like to introduce to you the mighty mealworm.

Mealworms have been considered a lowly pest for many years. Today they are used as feed and/or treats for lizards, chickens, frogs, toads and wild birds. And here at MMS, these little creatures turn a stagnant waste product into compost that we can use in the company garden. I marvel at the fact that we can take a product that has outlived its productive life and change it from a nuisance to available bio-mass for the garden. It is simply astonishing! I love all of the things that we do here at the MMS facility.