Why EPS?

EPS protects the things that matter most

Lightweight, shock-resistant, and an exceptional insulator, EPS is widely used in bicycle, ski and snowboard helmets, children’s car seats and life vests – applications in which both regulators and users demand exceptional safety.

Chances are we all grew up rid­ing in EPS car seats, where moth­ers and fathers appre­ci­ate the light weight and shock absorp­tion char­ac­ter­is­tics that make EPS the mate­r­i­al of choice for many a piece of per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment. Because it is com­posed of 98% air, it is also what makes life vests and surf­boards float.

An impor­tant ben­e­fit of using EPS in gear is the reli­a­bil­i­ty of mould­ed EPS pieces in absorb­ing impacts under a broad range of cir­cum­stances. EPS is also not impaired by com­mon chem­i­cals that can affect oth­er mate­ri­als and it main­tains its pro­tec­tive qual­i­ties over time.

EPS protects seedlings

EPS is light­weight, water­proof and a good ther­mal insulator—all qual­i­ties that are good for pro­tect­ing young plants and bees besides oth­er valu­able goods and people .

In fact, plant nurs­eries often use EPS trays to grow young seedlings and ship them world­wide. The trays pro­tect the seedlings from phys­i­cal and ther­mal shocks and don’t leak. And the bright white trays reflect light, which helps the plants grow.

In many cas­es, the hor­ti­cul­tur­al trays are re-used many times before being recy­cled. You can learn more about the recy­cling of EPS pack­ag­ing here.

EPS protects bees

Did you know that many of the world’s pro­fes­sion­al bee­keep­ers use EPS beehives?

The bee­hives are light­weight, mak­ing them easy for bee­keep­ers of all ages to move from place to place to help the bees pol­li­nate crops and find new sources of food. In many coun­tries EPS bee­hives have com­plete­ly replaced heavy wood­en boxes.

The excep­tion­al insu­la­tion prop­er­ties of EPS also do a bet­ter job of keep­ing bees warm in the win­ter and cool in the sum­mer, allow­ing them to avoid stress. That’s a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to the pro­tec­tion of bees and bio­di­ver­si­ty. Learn more here.

EPS saves lives at sea

Because it is almost as light as air and floats, EPS has long been used in life vests and res­cue rings for swim­ming pools and boats. But it is also used to pack­age and pro­tect parts in remote-con­trolled buoys because of its excel­lent shock-absorp­tion qualities.

Por­tuguese com­pa­ny Noras Per­for­mance pro­duces a remote-con­trolled life­sav­ing buoy called U‑Safe. Thanks to it being oper­at­ed by remote con­trol, a per­son onshore or a boat can steer the U‑Shaped buoy to some­one in the water to trans­port her or him to safety.

BEWI Plas­ti­mar in Por­tu­gal sup­plies Noras Per­for­mance with an EPS part that pro­tects the on-board elec­tron­ics of the buoy from shocks and rough weath­er. The elec­tron­ic con­trols are essen­tial to steer­ing the elec­tric tur­bines remote­ly and kilo­me­tres away.

NORAS Per­for­mance has been delight­ed with the results as EPS prop­er­ties ful­filled the require­ments need­ed, espe­cial­ly on the pro­tec­tion and shock absorp­tion of the buoy.

EPS helps automobiles lose weight

Weight is the ene­my of most automak­ers. It takes ener­gy to move, and stop, mass,. As a result, many automak­ers are look­ing to EPS com­po­nents to help reduce the weight of their prod­ucts and improve over­all fleet fuel economy.

EPS is wide­ly used in front and rear bumpers to absorb shocks, while weigh­ing as lit­tle as pos­si­ble. EPS is also used in side-impact pro­tec­tion sys­tems.

It is also used in bespoke parts such as the mould­ing to keep tyre repair kits in place with­out rat­tling and bang­ing. For some more exam­ples, click here.

EPS saves lives. Literally.

When the companies making the vaccines to protect us from COVID-19 needed packaging that could keep their products at ‑70°C for up to 3 days, what did they turn to? You guessed it: EPS.

Sev­er­al COVID-19 vac­cines are being deliv­ered exclu­sive­ly in EPS pack­ag­ing because of its unique com­bi­na­tion of out­stand­ing ther­mal insu­la­tion, excel­lent shock pro­tec­tion and light weight – impor­tant when vac­cines are being deliv­ered by air freight around the world.

The vac­cine vials are packed in EPS con­tain­ers, which are then filled with dry ice. The EPS con­tain­ers are some­times encased in card­board for addi­tion­al pro­tec­tion on long journeys.

EPS is also the pack­ag­ing of choice for many oth­er med­ical uses such as cool box­es for human organ transplants.

Broken white goods? Not with EPS

Although extremely lightweight, EPS packaging is an impressively protective and versatile material for the transportation and storage of large “white goods”, such as washing machines, refrigerators and ovens.

Its out­stand­ing pro­tec­tive prop­er­ties have made EPS a favourite pack­ag­ing mate­r­i­al for man­u­fac­tur­ers world­wide for the past 40 years.

The trans­porta­tion of large white goods requires a mate­r­i­al that has excep­tion­al cush­ion­ing prop­er­ties and high ten­sile strength so that goods arrive to cus­tomers with­out dam­age. Large white goods also require a mate­r­i­al that can be adapt­ed to the spec­i­fi­ca­tions of the indi­vid­ual prod­uct and process to trans­port high-val­ue prod­ucts to con­sumers safe­ly, sav­ing resources along its entire life cycle, includ­ing dur­ing pro­duc­tion and trans­port, and avoid­ing prod­uct waste.

These days it is not enough to be low-cost, how­ev­er. Even the most tried and test­ed mate­ri­als need to stand up to envi­ron­men­tal scrutiny.

The good news: Because EPS con­tains 98% air and is extreme­ly light­weight, its use saves ener­gy and reduces CO2 emis­sions across its entire life cycle. More­over, most white goods retail­ers take back their pack­ag­ing after they deliv­er their wares, mak­ing it eas­i­er to col­lect and recy­cle EPS again and again.

EPS keeps fish fresh

EPS is the leading market solution in the protection of fish and fish products from sea to sales counter across the globe.

This is due to its unpar­al­leled ther­mal per­for­mance, impact cush­ion­ing and stack­ing strength as well as its estab­lished eco-credentials.

Reg­u­la­tions require pro­fes­sion­al fish­er­men and dis­trib­u­tors to com­ply with strict tem­per­a­ture stan­dards in order to ensure the fresh­ness of the catch. Fish mar­ket pro­fes­sion­als need a mate­r­i­al that is eco­nom­i­cal and hygien­ic but at the same time tough, water­proof and light­weight. EPS ticks all the boxes.

EPS’s excep­tion­al impact resis­tance derives from the unique cel­lu­lar matrix of the EPS ‘foam’ – effec­tive­ly 98% air bond­ed with 2% poly­styrene. That cel­lu­lar struc­ture is also vir­tu­al­ly imper­me­able to water. EPS box­es are also high­ly resis­tant to heat trans­fer as well as being extreme­ly lightweight.

As a result, fish box­es made of EPS are the ide­al mate­r­i­al to ensure that the day’s catch arrives at your plate as fresh as it left the sea. They keep fish cold from catch until deliv­ery, ensur­ing opti­mum safe­ty, fresh­ness, and qual­i­ty and allow­ing fish caught in the EU to be export­ed world­wide. No oth­er fish box mate­r­i­al comes close to EPS.

Many stud­ies have shown that EPS con­tain­ers pro­vide the best insu­la­tion of all com­mon pack­ag­ing mate­ri­als, keep­ing tem­per­a­tures below 5.0°C for more than 72 hours. More­over, a 2011 life cycle analy­sis by Price­wa­ter­house­C­oop­ers analysed the envi­ron­men­tal impacts of sev­er­al fish box mate­ri­als, includ­ing EPS and card­board. The study showed that EPS has a small­er car­bon foot­print than alter­na­tive pack­ag­ing, requir­ing min­i­mal ener­gy and water inputs in pro­duc­tion with almost no pro­duc­tion waste.

EPS keeps our food safe

Food waste is a major environmental problem. Luckily, EPS provides a solution.

Around 88 mil­lion tonnes of food goes to waste every year in Europe, accord­ing to the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion. That has a huge envi­ron­men­tal impact, account­ing for 6% of total EU green­house gas emis­sions for food that was pro­duced but nev­er con­sumed, accord­ing to the Commission.

Reduc­ing food waste is a triple-win, sav­ing good food for human con­sump­tion, help­ing con­sumers save mon­ey and low­er­ing the envi­ron­men­tal impact of food pro­duc­tion, trans­porta­tion and disposal.

With its superb insu­la­tion and shock-absorb­ing qual­i­ties, EPS pack­ag­ing is wide­ly used to keep fish, meat, fruit and veg­eta­bles fresh longer and pro­tect them from dam­age dur­ing trans­porta­tion. Unlike some cel­lu­lose-based mate­ri­als, EPS sup­ports hygiene because it resists humid­i­ty, pre­vent­ing the spread of bac­te­ria, mould and fun­gi, thus keep­ing food safe.

EPS keeps electrical and electronic equipment safe

Lightweight and shock-resistant, EPS packaging is widely used to provide protection and safety to a variety of high value electrical and electronic goods from stereos to TV displays.

It pro­tects them all due to its unique abil­i­ty to shield them against both shocks and tem­per­a­ture changes.

EPS has a high ener­gy absorp­tion index. That means it is an ide­al mate­r­i­al for pro­tect­ing sen­si­tive prod­ucts dur­ing trans­porta­tion and storage.

Its excep­tion­al impact resis­tance derives from the unique cel­lu­lar matrix of the EPS ‘foam’ – effec­tive­ly 98% air bond­ed with 2% poly­styrene. No oth­er mate­r­i­al comes close to EPS when it comes to impact resistance.

This is even more fun­da­men­tal today than ever before, as design and dis­tri­b­u­tion require­ments for trans­port pack­ag­ing become more demand­ing in the glob­al, sus­tain­able and cir­cu­lar economy.