Terry Slack was out bird watching when he came across a monstrous white blob he described as "the size of the back of a half-ton pickup truck."

It was expanded polystyrene, better known as Styrofoam, and because of the potential harm to birds, Slack and his friends took it from the shores of Deering Island Park, a small island on the south side of the Fraser River near the Lone Island Causeway.

"The diving birds at Point Grey have almost completely disappeared," said Slack, an environmentalist with a longtime attachment to the Fraser River. He blames the abundance of discarded expanded polystyrene for the disappearance of birds.

But after putting the Styrofoam in his mother's garage, Slack couldn't find a way to dispose of the garbage that didn't involve putting it in a landfill or throwing it in a river. He said nobody from the city has offered any help.

Mairi Welman, director of communications for the Recycling Council of B.C., said expanded polystyrene poses a problem because it's so voluminous.

She said the only place she knows of that handles Styrofoam in the province is Gibsons Recycling Depot on the Sunshine Coast.

Buddy Boyd, the owner of Gibsons Recycling Depot, said some large stores like London Drugs, Best Buy and Future Shop will take expanded polystyrene if it's in good condition.

Boyd's company uses the RecycleTech Corp. XT200, a machine that heats and compacts expanded polystyrene into a ball. Boyd said the expanded polystyrene is melted and chopped before it comes out of the 1,400-pound machine looking like soft ice cream. The final product can be a fraction of its original size.

Boyd said the product his machine produces is recycled into products like bicycle helmets, CD cases and crown moulding. He said recycled expanded polystyrene usually sells for between 10 and 15 cents a pound.

"The cleaner and drier it is the easier it is to recycle," he said, adding that it would be difficult to deal with dirty, waterlogged expanded polystyrene similar to what Slack pulled from the river.

Boyd said his company was an alternative to most curbside recycling programs, which he referred to as being part of a "big, environmental Ponzi scheme."

Boyd said most material in blue bins is too dirty to be effectively recycled and only gives people the illusion of doing something for the environment.

NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton said there was no good solution for Slack's predicament. "Styrofoam is one of the most vexing substances," she said. "I've avoided it my whole life."

While Anton stipulated that the best solution was to avoid expanded polystyrene completely, she said encountering it is almost inevitable because of its prevalence as a packing material. Anton advised against burning the material and releasing fossil fuels. "I'm inclined to think, just put it back in the ground," she said.

Anton said the biggest problem is expanded polystyrene in the oceans, which she said had no solution. "The best response to garbage is to try not to create it," she said.

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