McArthur Making a Difference

McArthur General Manager, Darin Pound beside the densifier.

McArthur General Manager, Darin Pound beside the densifier.

McArthur Fine Furniture & Interior Design is a three-generation-run family business in Airdrie, AB. General Manager Darin Pound and his brother have been growing the business since 2009 and in December 2013 took a step to improve the business further and reduce waste by purchasing an expanded polystyrene (EPS) densifier.

“I was concerned over the amount of waste the store had from furniture packaging such as wood, cardboard and Styrofoam so I looked into options to reduce our footprint,” comments Darin. “I did some research and found a company called GreenMax.”

The GreenMax machine works with friction to combine the Styrofoam into blocks that are then shipped back to the company in China and turned into picture frames and other plastic products.

All the bags in this yard will turn into one three-foot block as seen stacked along the back wall.

All the bags in this yard will turn into one three-foot block as seen stacked along the back wall.

“With the purchase of the machine the biggest win for McArthur was eliminating about 95% of our waste and 85% of our waste costs,” adds Darin who has seen a change in the frequency his waste bin is emptied from once every three months compared to three bins emptied every two weeks previously.

In addition to eliminating McArthur’s waste, Darin extended an invitation to the City of Airdrie to use the company’s machine for their EPS and Styrofoam waste. The machine only needs to run for about one and half hours a week to compact McArthur’s waste EPS and about a half hour a day, two to three days a week to convert the city’s weekly waste.

Darin estimates they’ve processed 532 cubic bags (as seen in the picture below) into blocks since early 2014 and expects to continue that pace moving forward.