The Sentinel Self

Polystyrene (PS) is a polymer of styrene, a small aromatic molecule in liquid form. When in polymerized form, polystyrene is typically a hard, brittle material.

The main feedstock for styrene today is Petroleum, the most important building block of polystyrene. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is simply polystyrene with air injected into it during production, which results in a lightweight, low-density material with buoyant properties.

Other popular plastic materials are made from styrene as well, such as ABS (aka acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). It is produced when styrene and acrylonitrile are polymerized together with polybutadiene. This material is familiar to all humans as it features predominantly in the production of electronics such as smartphones, computers, and printers. A lesser-known ABS application is a component of tattoo ink. Another way to use ABS is to make Lego blocks with it. When Lego executives announced they were thinking of changing the type of plastic in Lego to something deemed more sustainable, they were surprised when their PR department informed them that numerous of their customers hadn’t ever thought about Lego as being made from plastic in the first place.

Polystyrene is a solid bulk material that, like other plastics, often starts as a preproduction pellet or ‘nurdle’, sold to manufacturers who melt these nurdles and mold them into consumer products. Nurdles can easily become microplastic pollution whenever preproduction pellets are lost in transport. Early in the 20th century, polystyrene was sometimes used to produce records, 45 rpm singles. Nowadays, DVD or CD jewel cases are made of polystyrene.

Polystyrene is used for making millions of consumer products that require hard plastic, such as disposable plastic razors or eyeglasses frames. It is also used as building insulation material, for flotation devices such as buoys and floats, and as a support to grow hydroponic tomato plants on water without any soil. Its plastic recycling code is No.6.

Styrofoam®, the expanded polystyrene (EPS) version of polystyrene, that causes the end-of-life pollution of waterways and city streets, often because of Styrofoam ‘peanut’ packaging that blows around in the wind when they escape from Amazon delivery boxes on the curb, whilst waiting for rubbish pickup. PS plays a major role in the disposable plastic stuff one gets when ordering takeaway food.

This polymer is popular, accounting for 6.1% of plastic demand in Europe.

Polystyrene often contains brominated flame retardants. For instance, even expanded polystyrene buoys that are at no risk of catching fire, are known to contain the toxic flame retardant HBCD (a persistent organic pollutant recognized by the UN’s Stockholm Convention). This chemical is known to leach out and poison oyster farms that make use of EPS buoys. EPS is highly flammable, more so than any other building materials, such as wood. PS is also criticized for the large number of single-use applications (disposables) that easily become litter. Polymers of styrene have been detected in the human bloodstream and livestock blood. Immune system cells are known to criticize polystyrene beads trespassing in the river of life.

Le Chant du Styrène (1958) a short film by Alain Resnais with text by Raymond Queneau, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051471/ Excerpt:
Ô temps, suspends ton bol, ô matière plastique
D'où viens-tu ? Qui es-tu ? Et qu'est-ce qui explique 
Tes rares qualités ? De quoi donc es-tu fait ?
Quelle est ton origine ? En partant d'un objet
Retrouvons ses aïeux! Qu'à l'envers se déroule
Son histoire exemplaire.

Le Chant du Styrène full text in French:  https://web.archive.org/web/20070928022748/http://www.acrif.org/fr/document.asp?rubid=26&docid=5
https://plasticseurope.org/knowledge-hub/plastics-the-facts-2021/
https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/plastics/single-use-plastics_en
https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2022/07/80-of-cow-and-pig-meat-blood-and-milk-contains-plastic/
Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022001258