Expanded polystyrene (EPS) has had many names in Europe: Styropor, Styrofoam, PSE, Piepschuim or Polyfoam – to name just a few. The European EPS industry now puts an end to this name variety introducing a common European name for EPS material: "airpop" engineered air (www.airpop.com).

But why give a new name to an internationally established material like EPS? Simply because the name airpop immediately brings to mind what the material is mostly made of – 98% of air. The other tiny fraction is made of synthetic material, which expands to 50 times its own volume. The airpop-campaign has been initiated by Eumeps Power Parts (Brussels / Belgium; www.eumeps-powerparts.eu), European airpop-converters, their respective national EPS associations and European EPS raw material producers. The concept was developed by the German communication agency Ogilvy & Mather. The introduction at the current "interpack" fair – see Plasteurope.com of 08.05.2014 – is a joint activity of the German packaging producers' association Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (IK, Bad Homburg; www.kunststoffverpackungen.de) and Eumeps Power Parts.

According to IK, airpop represents an industry of around 200 mainly small and medium sized converters for moulded parts in Europe. They process about 300,000 t/y of raw material into airpop products. Main customers are producers of household applications, electronic technologies companies, the HVAC and the food industry.