WEBVTT - How Styrofoam Works 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:07.720 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.560 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:15.840 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is a good 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:20.680 old fashioned, root and tootin wholesome, down home hour of 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:22.560 fellowship with Stuff you should Know. 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:28.200 Wow, these sound like the coolest youth director in the building. 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.120 You nailed the chuck, You totally nailed it. 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:31.680 That's right. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.080 I'm also the only youth director in the building right now. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.839 That's right. I I had to hang out my spurs. 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.320 Yeah, you got run out on a rail, didn't you. 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:44.440 They were like, if there's one thing that's certainly not cool, 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.680 this youth directors in their fifties, so you're out right. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.240 I'm still in my forties. So it's kind of like 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.320 David Bowie said, don't trust any youth director over fifty. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.920 That's right. You know. He also sung about styrofoam. 0:00:58.600 --> 0:00:59.240 No he didn't. 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:01.920 I just thought I could get you. 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.600 No, I could see it. I mean like it was 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.200 when Bowie was Bowie, it was styrofoam was still this 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.679 amazing wonder product. But I gotta say, Chuck, I feel 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.479 like in the last decade or so, maybe it's started 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:16.720 to get kind of a bad name. 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.520 I think you're right, uh, And we're gonna, I mean, 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.520 we're gonna talk about the science of it all, how 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:27.520 it's made, and clear up some misconceptions and reinforce some conceptions. 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:31.200 But the first thing we should probably clear up, and 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:32.959 big thanks to Lvia by the way, she knocked the 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.640 outther one out of the park, YEP, is that styrofoam 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:41.400 is a brand name, and Levi Levia Lyvia is keen 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.679 to point out that it's not just like you know, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.440 band aid or Kleenex like this one actually matters because 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.560 the styrofoam that you and I think of and most 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.200 people probably think of as like, you know what, what 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.840 to go container or an old school coffee cup or 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.000 to go coffee cup might be Ye, that's actually not styrofoam. 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:07.400 That's technically something called EPs expanded polystyrene, whereas the brand 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:13.080 name styrofoam is extruded polystyrene and that's mainly just like 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.640 used for insulation and you know, cut into big boards 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:18.600 and stuff like that. 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.240 Right, And you're like, well, what's the big deal? They're 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.639 actually basically exactly the same products. They have slightly different properties. 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.880 But it's all the same raw materials, very similar production processes, 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.040 and that the final product is, for all intentsive purposes, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.440 the same. The big difference is the styrofoam is used 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.639 for years and years and years and years. Like, once 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.040 you put it in to insulate a radiant heat floor, 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.040 you're not going to tear that up after a couple 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.040 of days and throw it in the dump. Ye with 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.919 the other stuff that expanded polystyrene, the stuff we think 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.720 of as styrofoam, that's the stuff we used once for 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.920 a few minutes and just throw away and get another 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.359 new one. And that's posing a bigger and bigger problem 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:05.560 as time goes on. 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.280 That's right, unless you're at my house than Emily collects 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.880 every bit of styrofoam and drives it to the specific 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.680 styrofoam place Charm, Yeah, which still may not be recycling it. 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.480 Oh no really, Oh I don't know. I mean, I 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.520 think Charm does the right thing, but I don't know. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.160 I just think so much of that stuff is dubious 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:26.400 once you drop it off, Like who knows what even 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.440 happens to it? Yeah, And I don't mean that in 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:30.760 a conspiracy minded way. I just mean that as we'll 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.880 see recycling styrofoam, there's just not a lot of reason 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:36.800 to do it if you're styrofoam people, because you can 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:38.280 just make it again so cheaply. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.800 It's true. And for those of you, yeah, it is 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:44.560 sad for sure. And for those of you outside of 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.480 the Atlanta area, CHARM is the one recycling center in 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.800 the entire metro Atlanta area where you can take styrofoam 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.680 stands for the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.440 Yeah, I mean, God bless Emily for doing all that, 0:03:58.480 --> 0:03:59.760 because I certainly wouldn't. 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:04.680 I know, it's a hall. It's not really conveniently. 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.160 Neither is saving tons and tons of styrofoam to go 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.440 to CHARM once a month or whatever. But she does it, 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:11.360 so yeah, you know, she does the right thing. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.200 So let's talk about all this stuff because I find 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.800 it pretty fascinating. There's some science involved, or some environmentalism involved, 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:22.320 there's some corporate tomfoolery involved. I'm excited about this one. Well, 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.960 I'm glad, good, Well, I'm going to kick it off 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:30.280 because styrofoam, Well, let's start. We're talking about polystyrene, and 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:35.240 polystyrene is a form of styrene and styrene occurs naturally 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.240 in a lot of different plants. It's just kind of 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.000 part of the ecosystem. But it was first distilled out 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:47.240 in I think eighteen thirty nine, Yeah, by a German pharmacist. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.720 I'm going with Edward Simmon in German. 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.400 You know, I don't know that sounds French. 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.080 Yeah, that doesn't sound very German. 0:04:57.800 --> 0:04:59.080 I me just call him Eddie Simon. 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.560 Eddie Simon. In eighteen thirty nine, he was a pharmacist 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.320 who got his hands on a sweet gum tree from America, 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.760 which was probably very exotic in Germany at the time, 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.160 and he got styrene out of there, and he figured 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.360 out how to take styrene molecules, which are a monomer, 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.080 and put a bunch of them together to make a polymer. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.880 And what he got was a rigid plastic solid. What 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.440 we're talking about is a type of plastic. And he's like, 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.040 I can't do anything with this, and just moved along. 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:29.839 Yeah, And it stayed that way for close to one 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.720 hundred years, like ninety years or so. And finally in 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.480 the nineteen thirties, again a lot of stuff comes about 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.160 because they're trying to figure out some sort of military 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.400 use for something that was the case here as we were, 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.480 you know, between wars, the military was like, hey, how 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.359 can we use this stuff? The literal brand name styrofoam, 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:52.960 which again is the XPS the stuff that's you know, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.800 used in radio flooring and like wall insulation and stuff 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.200 like that, that wasn't been in a couple of times. 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.200 The first time I'm by a Swedish and minter named 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.440 Carl Munters who developed it in the thirties but again 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:06.839 didn't have a lot of practical use for it. And 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.600 then Dow came along, the Dow Chemical Company during World 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.960 War Two, and they had an engineer named Ray McIntyre 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.320 who said, I'm looking to try and get a synthetic 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.080 or I guess he was charged with trying to develop 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:23.680 a synthetic substitute for rubber. 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:25.720 Yeah, he was facing five years for it. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.000 Yeah, to use as a flexible insulator. And he combined 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.560 styrene with isobutylene and what he got was something he 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:38.080 didn't expect, which was this very airy The i of 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.320 buteline formed bubbles in the styrene. So it was you 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.360 know what we think of a styrofom, this super light, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.839 very airy, very insulating, water resistant flexible material. 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.200 Yeah, so imagine taking something like imagine taking a CD 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.800 jewel case because that's polystyrene m and chopping it up 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:58.520 into little tiny pellets, and then you're messing around with 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.359 it and adding so beautilene, and all of a sudden, 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.679 those pealaces turn into little foamy balls, the exact same 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.520 thing that if you have a very lightweight bean bag chair, 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:13.080 it's full of those. It's polystyrene foam. That's the basis 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.400 of the whole thing, right, these little tiny pellets. And 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.800 he must have just been as surprised as the day 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:18.200 is long. 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.640 Yeah, well, Dow was certainly surprised and delighted, and they 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.800 were like, hey, let's just start manufacturing this stuff. We 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:25.920 got plenty of things we can do. And somebody said, 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.080 wait a minute, there's this other guy named Carl Munters 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.120 who already developed, you know, and has patented this concept. 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.720 And dal said, great, let's just write him, cut him 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.720 a check, and now we can patent capital s styrofoam. 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.080 And they did so, and they started saying, hey, you know, 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.440 we can build like floating docks out of this stuff, 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.720 and there's all sorts of marine uses basically because it 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:49.600 floats really well. 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.800 Yeah, because that extruded polystyrene, the actual styrofoam brand type 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.640 that is very water resistant, it's extremely lightweight, it's very buoyant. 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.760 So it just automatically made sense to apply it to 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.040 different like water based situations, right. 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.680 Yeah, for sure. As far as the stuff that we 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.920 think of as styrofoam, around the same time in the 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.880 nineteen thirty is a German company called ip Farban, who 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.200 I know, we've talked about them before several times. 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.520 They're the ones who created the gas that was used 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:23.880 in the gas chambers. Ah Okay, they've come up a 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.320 time or two. They don't have a great reputation these 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:26.800 days now. 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.559 I know, we've definitely talked about them a few times. 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:34.280 But they were developing the EPs, the polystyrene foam, the 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.600 stuff again that we think of as styrofoam, like you know, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:39.959 the cups and the to go containers and all that stuff, 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:44.200 and both sides in World War Two started saying, hey, 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.040 this stuff is super light and super insulating, works good 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:51.040 as a shock absorber. We can use it in various 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.840 parts to make them lighter, So let's get going with it. 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.800 Yeah. The thing is, I guess it's part of the 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:03.160 extrusion process. Essentially is only made in board form long 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.640 finished boards, right, kind of like it looks like drywall, 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.280 but it's foam. If you've ever been to a do 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.640 it yourself hardware store and they have like big big 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:20.040 rectangles of foam, that is styrofoam styrol. It might not 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.280 be Styrofoam brand, but it's that exact same thing, right, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.560 And there's not that many uses to it. But the 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:31.680 stuff it does do like blockout heat, insulate is another 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.760 word for it. It does really really well. Right, So 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:40.600 the XPS is it has like some limited applications. The EPs, 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:42.920 the stuff we think of like the styrofoam cups and 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:48.439 all that stuff, that has like a limitless applications because 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.200 you can take that stuff as part of the production 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.960 process and push it into a mold and mold it 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:58.040 into any shape you want. And they definitely did that 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:04.359 in the post war era of prosperous better living through chemistry. 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.040 That styrofoam was a a big star of that at first. 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.520 Yeah, and you know, you can probably name any sort 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:17.199 of insulation application that it was used for, everything from 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.560 you know, ice cream containers, like you know, when you 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.839 go to taste all the ice cream and then finally 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.720 settle on one those big coolers. Those are lined with 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.840 thick styrofoam. They used them for Christmas ornaments because they 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.400 were super light and won't weigh down a tree. All 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:37.640 kinds again of marine applications, you know, buoys, floating docks, 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.560 in boats. Again, you can mold it however you want. 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.640 But you know the styrophone coolers that you know, you 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.000 pick up at the gas station because you just have 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.000 a hankering for cold beer and you're on the road 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.400 you want to drink and drive smart. Just kidding, But 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:55.440 those that you see in the convenient store, those started 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.280 popping up in the nineteen fifties, but we didn't see 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.440 the cups until the nineteen sixties, right. 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.520 Yeah, apparently Chick fil A was one of the first 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:10.480 restaurants to adopt styrofoam cups to go stuff. Right, that 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.000 was in nineteen sixty I think. 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.559 Yeah, right on the nose from what the Dart Manufacturing 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:17.600 Company of Michigan. 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.640 Yeah, so Dart Manufacturing got into this, and they got 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.920 into it so heavy that they actually ended up changing 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.319 their name to Dark Container Corporation. They're one of the 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.880 leading companies or leading producers of what you would consider 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:33.800 styrofoam containers. Yeah, so they were the ones that started 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.280 producing this, started kind of getting it out there, like, Hey, 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.640 you know how you don't like your customers sitting around 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.120 taking an hour and a half to drink their coke. Yeah, 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.720 buy one of our styrofoam cups. They'll just get right 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:45.640 out of your hair and somebody else can come in 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:48.959 and patronize your restaurant. Right, So it caught on pretty quick. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.600 I think seven to eleven was the first chain to 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:57.680 actually start using styrofoam cups for coffee, which, as we'll see, 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.280 was a bad idea right out of the gate. And 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.120 by the seventies it was like anywhere you went and 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.840 got coffee, it came in a white And again, I'm sorry, 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.680 I realized I keep using the word styrofoam. You couldn't 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.439 do any different than I am right now trying to 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:14.040 talk about this. 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.040 It's impossible, but that just. 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.640 Became the standard for this whole thing, Like a styrofoam cup, 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.520 that's what your coffee came in until Starbucks came along. 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.560 Yeah, I mean for decades basically, and then Starbucks did 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.679 lead the charge to sort of, you know, get rid 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.160 of that, and then you know, a bunch of people 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:35.120 followed suit, thankfully. But you know, when fast food came 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:40.040 along and take out food got more popular, obviously that's 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:44.200 gonna grow, grow, growth, the syrophoam business. I'm very glad 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.360 Livia included this because I would have if she wouldn't have, 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:48.520 and you probably would have to. But if you grew 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.199 up a kid in the eighties, then you remember the 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:56.000 McDonald's McDLT. If you don't remember, I think we've mentioned 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.000 it before, but it was. The idea was they're like, hey, 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.040 no one wants all this hot, droopy lettuce and steamy 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.160 tomatoes on their hamburgers. They want that stuff to be cold, 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:08.640 and they want their burger to be hot, and they 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:09.839 want to do it like you do at home, is 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.600 you add that stuff right before you put it in 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.920 your mouth for the right mixture. And that's what the 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:18.280 McDLT was. It was not only an offending styrofoam container, 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.160 but it was a double because you had one side 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.480 that had keeps the hot stuff hot and the cool 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.400 side cool. That's right, and none other than Seinfeld's own 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.680 Jason Alexander Sang and danced in a TV commercial in 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.360 the eighties extolling the virtues of the McDLT container itself. 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.600 Yeah, wearing a skinny tie. I think he's wearing a 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:39.679 blazer with the sleeves rolled up. 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.520 Even maybe probably pushed. 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:47.120 Up like he thinks of nineteen eighty five. Yeah, the 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.280 thing about the McDLT container, and yeah, if you don't 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.600 know we're talking about, just go look it up. Once 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:55.199 you took the top off, you could actually like close 0:13:55.360 --> 0:14:00.480 the bottoms together and put your sandwich together, like using 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.600 your styrofoam container. For those who were like really good at. 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.920 It, Yeah, I see. I don't know. I never ate 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:07.800 that because that wasn't my jam, but it seemed like 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.840 it would just kind of not do a very great 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:11.360 job at that. 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.320 Yeah. No, mcdelt never passed my lips either because of 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.520 the L and the T. But I have to say, 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.000 one of the things that makes me really nostalgic for 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:25.280 my childhood is looking at old styrophoem McDonald's containers. 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.200 Yeah, it's hard not to just see that that yellow 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.360 container with all the m's all over it. Yep, and 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.400 not pine for it, but just you know, just like 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:35.480 nostalgia does. 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.760 Definitely takes you back. What knocked me out is, as 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.600 we'll see, it wasn't until nineteen ninety that they stopped 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:42.440 using those things. 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.360 Yeah, and we'll get to you know how it's been 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.160 sort of weeded out here and there, but it's still 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.440 a booming industry. I think last year worldwide there were 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:55.400 fifteen point two million total tons of polystyrene produced, and 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.040 about sixty percent of that is in the Age of 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:03.040 Pacific region. Apparently it's a growing thing, but it's growing 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.560 much slower in Europe and North America than it is 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.560 in industrializing areas around the world. 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:13.080 Right, most of it goes in the packing industry. I 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.000 think a third of it is used by packaging industry. 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.560 Those packing peanuts were invented by a guy named Robert E. 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.920 Holding back in nineteen sixty five. Household appliances used as 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.760 another quarter of it. I didn't understand that. I think 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:29.920 some of it as packing materials. You know you have 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.600 to pull all those boards of cyrofoam out of your 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:33.680 new refrigerator. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.920 Yeah. I think it's also in some of the units, 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.480 like in a washer, aren't there like big chunks of 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:43.120 styrofoam is just like air? Yeah, take up airspace. 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.040 I think that's part of it. And then also like 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.160 in that same fridge, there's like around the dials and controls. 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.080 They'll use some for insulation. They don't actually insulate the 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.400 fridge with it because you can't create an air tight 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.480 seal between two boards, but they do use it in 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:01.280 another place is in the fridge where you don't need 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:02.160 an airtight seal. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.920 Well, I think this is off to a capital start. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.880 Shall we take a break and let you take over? 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:11.760 Sure? I think that's a capital idea. 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:12.920 All right, we'll be right back. 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.200 Okay, Chuck. So we're back, and you said that I 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.480 would be taking over, and since I'm taking over, I'm 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.440 in charge and I'm delegating it to you. 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.440 I can start this part. But you know when did 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.600 come in because it's part of you know, it's chemistry, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:50.680 and that's famously the only class I ever failed. 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.000 I'm just fascinated by it. So yeah, this works out 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:54.680 just perfectly. 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.320 That's great. If we're talking about styring today. Another name 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.680 for it is vinyl benzcene because it is a vinyl. 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.560 As we'll see, it does not come from a plant 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:08.520 like Eddie Simon used back in Germany in the eighteen thirties. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.600 The modern process is it starts with you know, it 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.800 comes from petroleum products these days, and specifically a couple 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.360 called benzene and ethylene. They're combined with a catalyst called 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:24.359 aluminum chloride to eventually produce ethyl benzene. You get that 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.119 in a gas state process. It at a high temperature 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:32.200 with another catalyst. It's a process called dehydrogenating. And finally 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:33.440 you have your styrene. 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.680 Yes, styrene is eight h eight lots of carbon, lots 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:42.920 of hydrogen together. Yeah, and in that styrene molecule there 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.119 are carbon atoms that have a double bond between them, right, 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.320 which means that they can share one. So when you 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.960 take styrene a monomer and put a bunch of them 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.920 together to create a polymer, one of those double bonds 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.359 kind of opens up and connects to another one and 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.159 another one another one. It forms a car chained right. 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.679 But if you look at the I don't know what 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.199 it's called, but like the chemical drawing, you know of 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.320 like the molecule with the lines and the seas and 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:09.280 the h's and everything. 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:11.879 Yeah, I feel like in most movies that's rendered three D, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.240 so you can zoom it around and stuff. 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.480 Right, this is more like the written out shorthand that 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:19.600 I'm talking about. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:23.840 I don't know what mine's called, but whatever that is. 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:28.119 For the polystyrene, if you look at it, it's a 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.760 nice little carbon chain, but then there's these like medallions 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.679 dangling off of them. Those are called phenol groups. And 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.760 because of those things, the polymers can't form a really 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:42.720 nice crystalline structure, which means that you could it's see through. 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.040 It's not particularly thick, it's brittle, so it can break, 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:49.320 and it's not flexible very much. Right, And I was like, well, 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.520 wait a minute. Crystal you think about is already see through. 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.359 But as far as chemistry goes, the more crystalline the 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:00.000 structure is, the tighter the whole thing is put together, 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.240 so the thicker and less see through. It is, so 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:06.800 like steel has a very crystalline structure, even though you know, 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.680 I think rose quartz when I think of a crystalline structure. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:11.119 But that's wrong, wrong, wrong. 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.320 Yeah. See that's why I'm like good at chemistry. It's 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:15.320 not very intuitive, is. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.600 It, I know, But I mean this is pretty late 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:19.440 in life. It's not like I was a chemistry whiz 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.480 in high school. I'm not even sure if I took 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:24.720 a chemistry class in high school. Oh yeah, yeah, I 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.479 got out of a lot of stuff. Never took trig. 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:29.959 How'd you get out of that stuff? 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:31.639 I had my ways? 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:33.800 Oh okay, I won't ask any further. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.960 So again, if you take the stuff this polystyrene, you 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.359 don't have anything that even resembles a foam cup. You 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:42.439 have like what looks like a bunch of pellets that 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.680 if you mashed together, you would again create a CD 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:49.280 jewel case, because that's exactly what they do to create those. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:51.720 You have to go add a couple extra steps to 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:53.720 create polystyrene foam. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.160 Yeah, exactly. And you know we said that that stuff 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.520 was prone to cracking and very breakable. If you came 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.360 about in the CD jewel case era. Red solo cups too, 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.560 are also the same thing. But you know those CD 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:08.959 jewel cases, if you had one long enough, it's going 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:10.040 to have a crack in it. 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:13.240 Oh yeah, the entire thing. 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.040 No, no, no, no, there's almost a badge of bonner. Like, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.440 look how long I've had this thing. It's you can't 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:20.600 even see through it anymore. It's cracked all over the place. 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:22.800 You can't even see Billy Joel's face. 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.000 By the way. Well, I think we'll just follow up 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.320 with the Billy Joel listener mail. But he he announced 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.920 he has a medical condition and he's canceling his tour 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:33.920 for now. So it's very sad to see, kind of 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.360 right after we talked about him. I know, jinks hopefully 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.639 he'll be uh, he'll be okay though, but any. 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:40.159 I'm sure he will be. 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.000 So these XPS boards that we keep talking about, the 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:47.160 capital s dirofoam that's used an insulation and stuff like that. 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.879 How they make that As they melt those little beads 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.560 that you were talking about, those little granules, add chemicals, 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:56.840 one of which is a blowing agent, and then they 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.800 forced that thing through a die as in a dee 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.520 is in like die cast metal. 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:06.719 Right thing right, And then they're constantly pushing that stuff 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.720 through and it's melting it and pressing it together and 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:14.680 the final product those boards of polystyrene are really smooth, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:19.080 they're really thick, they're not very they just look really uniform. 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.040 And the reason why is because all of those cells, 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.359