BENZENE. That’s the commodity chemical. I hate journalists burying the lede.

The trick is collecting clean polystyrene foam.

You can’t throw it into a mixed recycling bin because it crumbles and contaminates the other materials.

We have a polystyrene recycling system here in San Francisco, CA, the only one in the US I’m told, but we have to separate the polystyrene foam and bring it to the dump.

It’s free for SF residents.