Foamhenge

On our roadtrip, my friends and I began in Chicago, then made our way down to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and then headed for Virginia.  Upon entering Virginia, we stopped at a destination I was waiting for--Foamhenge.  Yep, part foam, part henge.  Stonehenge, that is.

Foamhenge, in all its beauty

Foamhenge is located in Western Virginia.  It was once a complete replica of Stongehenge, made entirely out of Styrofoam.  It started as an April Fools prank, but was liked by the public so much that it has been left for all to enjoy.

However, over the years, it has slowly deteriorated.  Styrofoam is the common name for polystyrene, a petroleum-based plastic which is made from styrene.  And though I love Foamhenge, styrene is a big threat to the environment in all the shapes it takes--whether they be Stonehenge replicas or Styrofoam cups.

Styrene comes from petroleum, or crude oil, and therefore contributes to our heavy use of fossil fuels and thus increases carbon dioxide emissions and climate change when we extract oil and create Styrofoam. 

According to the EPA, "25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups are thrown away each year.  Even 500 years from now, a foam coffee cup [someone] used this morning will be sitting in a landfill."  Just as so many other petroleum-based plastics, it doesn't break down.  By using it, we are plaguing ourselves and our environment with hundreds of years of litter that there's no easy way to get rid of.  And unfortunately, many animals will eat Styrofoam bits that they find, and in high doses, styrene can be very toxic. 



Even when people try to do the right thing by recycling Styrofoam instead of trashing or littering it, many curbside pick-ups won't accept Styrofoam products for recycling!  And even in cases where they are picked up, Styrofoam products aren't "closed-loop"--instead of being recycled into new Styrofoam products, they are made into other things.  Thus, more Styrofoam has to be produced to replace the cups and other Styrofoam products that were lost in the process.

So while I found Foamhenge to be both hilarious and beautiful, the little beads of Styrofoam that littered the place were far from beautiful.  

There are greener alternatives to Styrofoam that are slowly being put into place, like post-consumer recycled paper cups, corn plastic, and bamboo.  Hopefully, we can phase Styrofoam out of the picture altogether.  Perhaps next time such a fantastic creation is put into place, alternatives like biodegradable corn-plastic or bamboo can be used, so that we may enjoy it without taking away from the environment!