Background ¿ BACKGROUND In 1999, the global consumption of plastics has risen some 7.6 %. More than 141 million tons were produced. The thermoplastic synthetics polysterene and expandable polysterene (EPS) represent 12.9% of the overall production of plastics. Alone in Germany, 200.000 tons of polysterene have been produced in 1999, a rise of 10% compared to 1998. Considering waste removal and recycling, EPS is most important, because it incurs in every household and in the commerce in the form of packaging material in huge quantities and should be put to recycling without exception. EPS plays an important role as an insulating material in the building and construction industry. Polysterene extruder foam materials are used as close-celled, standardized resp. certified hard foam plastics in those parts of buildings which are in direct contact with damp soil, in roof constructions as well as in constructions which are heavily used under pressure, like parking lots and the foundations of streets, airport runways, and railroads. The plastics industry is already aware that EPS is very well recyclable. However, until today recycled EPS could not be used as a fully adequate substitute for new EPS in insulating materials and other applications of the construction and building industry. Considering the variety of areas, where EPS can be used in this industry, it makes sense to develop new procedures for recycling EPS which will open up new applications. ¿ PROJECT OBJECTIVES The GAV GmbH in Aachen, Germany, will develop a new recycling procedure which will make recycled expandable polysterene (EPS) usable in insulating materials used by the construction and building industry. Until now, only new EPS granules could be used for most of these purposes.The procedure will replace the production of 400 t of new EPS by the use of 520 t of the recycled product per year. By the dissemination of the project results and implementation of the procedure in other EU-countries, a yearly production of 800 t of new EPS can be avoided at least. A yearly ecological damage equivalent to the pollution caused by the production of 6.666 t of CO2 or 458 t of solid waste can be avoided by the results of the project. A minimal cost reduction of 603.200,-- per year is obtainable for the industry in the EU by the use of the new product. GAV will create 5 additional jobs for long-term unemployed persons in this project. In order to process recycled EPS for these applications with the same quality features as the new product, it is necessary to design and to install new grinding and extruding systems. The steps of the procedure, esp. crushing of the material to be ground, classification, definition of the thickness and form of the grain have to be determined according to the needs of the construction material industry. Based on a series of model experiments the development of the procedures will be refined. In the following step the procedure will be prepared for realisation, and a processing plant will be built. Together with the future clients from the construction material industry the processing steps will be modified and optimised. Objectives