Summit County resident Doug Bair has helped start a collection site for polystyrene – plastic foam – so that the material can be recycled rather than thrown out.

Summit County residents can drop off used polystyrene in the gray plastic bin located in the upper parking lot at Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church in Dillon, Bair said. The High Country Conservation Center helped purchase the bin for polystyrene recycling.

Bair said he and his friends volunteer to take the polystyrene down to a recycling center in Arvada when they are already headed in that direction.

Only polystyrene that has not been treated can be recycled at the center, Bair said. So any polystyrene with a shiny coating – like takeout containers from restaurants – can’t be recycled at the collection site, he said.

Bair asks that people don’t place trash in the recycle collection bin.