11 Creative Ways To Recycle Packing Peanuts

thedailygreen.com:

Traditional packing peanuts are made out of polystyrene and are now color coded to indicate the origin of the material they contain. Polystyrene takes hundreds of years to decompose in nature, so recycling it is key.

Read the whole story: thedailygreen.com

Comments

[DRaymond]

I have always found that used packing peanuts make excellent packing peanuts! That is why I have always wondered at the folks who seem to have such distaste for them. They are infinitely and easily reusable! Formed styryfoam inserts I must admit are a different matter, but a packing peanut can be used to cushion anything else for shipping ad infinitum.

As for the other selections in the article the only one I have used is the bottom layer in the big flowerpot idea. That too really works.

[research]

It really kills your plants. I have tried it several times. Read below the chemical leaching from styrofoam. It's not inert.
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Polystyrene/Polystyrene-Foods-Styrene-Monomer.htm

[ResidualSelfImage]

If packing peanuts were made from hemp oil we could incinerate them for electricity at the local garbage incinerator.

[loki]

every once in a while you will get some made of rice. easy to tell by use putting your tongue on it. If it starts to dissolve, iits organic / rice packing. at least thats what ive been told. The foam peanuts I use for reshipping or give them away to others who want to ship things. Ive been tempted to save them up and send them to my congressman. Figure if they get a few hundred bags full of these they might think about doing something about it.
Another thing you can do with the foam ones is put them in a little acetone / lacquer thinner. they disappear in no time flat. Now how you dispose to the thinner is your call. I reuse it myself.
I know there is a company called PRI in Illinois that makes units that will remove all organic impurities from solvents and give you clean solvent back , with inert organic waste that you can toss out without worry.
They make units for the military, body shops, factories ect.. I dont think they make small units for home use, but I wish they would. IT would be great for the hobbyist like me.

[RTIII]

The best thing to do is re-use them as packing peanuts, of course. I recycle mine also by giving them to local private mail box places that people use to ship goods from.
.

[research]

Potted Plant Drainage:

DON"T DO IT!

It will KILL your plants. .

[DRaymond]

Exactly how is something completely inert and non-biodegradable going to kill your plants? And don't just say 'because there are chemicals'!

[research]

It is not completely inert. It out gasses. In fact you can smell and taste it with say hot coffee. It's probably Benzene from the manufacturing process, or with the huge surface area, it could be the styrene themselves, I don't know but I have tried using it for drainage, and it killed the plants.

Try it, tell my how it works, make sure you have a control.

But you might want to read the chemical analysis of foods served in Storyfoam first:

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Polystyrene/Polystyrene-Foods-Styrene-Monomer.htm

[TexasDem0]

They don't taste very good, but they DO fill you up.