Aug. 7--I open my garage door and it's sitting there, mocking me.

It's my pile of Styrofoam, a big, white airy collection of supposedly recyclable plastic packing material that I don't need and don't want. Apparently nobody else wants it, either.

In this greenest of green places, we discourage people from using cups, clamshells and packing peanuts made of expanded polystyrene. (Styrofoam is Dow Chemical's 1950s brand name.) Starting next year, Palo Alto restaurants won't be able to use polystyrene packaging. San Jose bans polystyrene at big events like this weekend's jazz festival.

Fine, but what are we supposed to do with the polystyrene that's already out there? Though it's supposedly recyclable, nearly all polystyrene winds up in the landfill because it's next to impossible for the average person to recycle it.

As I recently found out.

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I were cleaning out the attic and found a bunch of cardboard boxes that once had held computers, TVs, and other appliances we bought over the years. Don't ask me why we kept them. I guess in case we ever needed to send them out for repairs.

Bad news inside

Being good green citizens, we were determined to recycle them. But when we opened the empty boxes, we found they weren't empty. They were filled with the molded polystyrene foam that kept the original contents safe on their way to us.

That was bad

news.

My local recycling center in Palo Alto refused to take the stuff. When we asked what to do with it, the guy said, "The dump is right next door."

What? Put it in the landfill? Even San Jose lets people recycle it curbside. How can Palo Alto be so uncool?

Then I checked out San Jose's program. Yes, you can put polystyrene in your recycle bin, but don't be fooled. It still winds up in the landfill, where it will fester for a zillion years.

"We don't actually recycle it," Jennifer Garnett of San Jose Environmental Services conceded sheepishly. "There's just no market for Styrofoam."

So all those well-meaning greenies who dutifully wash their takeout containers and haul them out to the curb are duped into thinking they are doing the right thing? Yup.

No takers

Garnett said if I was determined to recycle my stash, I should check out Santa Clara County's recycling Web site, www.recyclestuff.org. The site listed a bunch of companies that supposedly recycle polystyrene. I called them, but all said they stopped taking it.

Gene Imperato of Lynx Recyclers in Santa Clara said the problem is that polystyrene is 95 percent air. It's just too bulky to ship economically.

"It would cost me $60,000 to put in a machine to densify the stuff and load it on a ship and send it to China," he said.

Chris Peck at the state Integrated Waste Management Board said the market is saturated with the stuff, I guess because it lasts forever. But he mentioned a company in Lodi that accepts it.

And how much gasoline would I burn getting to Lodi?

Some recyclers accept polystyrene by mail. For a list, go to www.epspackaging.org.

I finally found one local guy who grudgingly agreed to take the pile off my hands. He said he'd use it to pack other recycled materials for shipping.

"But please don't put my name in the paper," he pleaded. "The last thing I need is thousands of people lined up trying to dump this stuff on me."

I'm tempted to take him up on it. Sorry, folks, but in the race to recycle Styrofoam, it's every greenie for herself.

Contact Patty Fisher at pfisher@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5852

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