What is Polystyrene

Polystyrene is a hard, brilliantly transparent, stiff resin. It is produced by the polymerization of styrene and is the most widely used plastic. At room temperature, the thermoplastic polymer is a solid but when heated above 100 °C it flows. It becomes rigid again when it cools down. Polystyrene is insoluble in water.

Polystyrene is compound that is non-biodegradable with a couple of exceptions. It is easily dissolved by many aromatic hydrocarbon solvents and chlorinated solvents. It is widely used in the food-service industry as rigid trays, containers, disposable eating plates, bowls, etc.

Common microbes cannot degrade the polymer because of its aromatic backbone, leading scientists to estimate that it persists for tens of thousands of years. Collin Ward and colleagues at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wondered whether sunlight absorbed by polystyrene could transform it into carbon dioxide and dissolved organic carbon in a much shorter time.