Polystyrene Sphere

This gobstopper-sized, feather-light, white ball is made of expanded polystyrene beads, heat-fused to form a delicate, plastic foam sphere. In large quantities, these balls tend to generate static electricity and leap out of your grasp, perhaps explaining why this one is somewhat dented. The ball itself is formed in a mould and comes pre-pierced, for use in craft or model-making as a core for objects requiring mass with low density and lightness. Expanded polystyrene seems to be a cheap option for industry, as in coffee-cups and moulded packaging, but strangely expensive for art and craft use. Polystyrene is a vinyl polymer – like most plastics, it is a highly processed and refined derivative of a natural material, in this case storax, the resin of the Turkish sweet-gum tree. Expanded polystyrene is recyclable and does not biodegrade, but people still throw it away in vast quantities, in land-fill sites and into the sea, where it is found piled up on shorelines, and in the stomachs of marine creatures.