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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Peanuts! Get Yer Red Hot Packing Peanuts!

Packing peanuts. If you are anything like me you hate these things, but somewhere deep in the recess of a closet, you have a large bag of them waiting to be sent off to some unknown destination. Come on, you know who you are.

Well fear not, friendly peanut hater. While they may keep coming at ya whether you like it or not, there are now options. For starters, stop buying so much stuff online (kidding, well, not really, but....anyway). Check out the Plastic Loose Fill Council which believe it or not actually offers a hotline and online resource to find places to return these things where they will actually get re-used. Get that, re-used, not recycled or re- whatevered, but re-used for the purpose they were originally made for. Cool huh? I wish they'd stop making these things in the first place but if they are going to, at least they can get re-used so less of them need to be made.

And if you're looking to gripe on the subject, check out this I Hate Packing Peanuts website.


Dave

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

you can actually put them to good use at the bottom of your potted plants--i'm planning a container garden for my balcony this year, and have actually been looking for some!

Anonymous said...

I have found that many Fed-Ex locations or other packing/shipping stores will also take them back to re-use. There's no way to tell what someone else will do with them, but after receiving boxes full of packing peanuts from wedding presents a year ago, I was happy to know someone would use them over again.

Dave said...

We've actually done the planter thing in the past but I often wonder about the breakdown issue. Also, there are only so many plants you can pot and a lot more peanuts than that.

mjp said...

I once unpacked some gadget that came in a box full of packing peanuts, and when I did I noticed a familiar smell. The "peanuts" turned out to be stale, unflavoured Wotsits (I think they're called Cheetos in the US). I didn't eat one, but they softened and dissolved in water in the same way. This was several years ago - I wonder if these things still exist? Worm-friendly!

Dave said...

So was everything orange?

I've seen these before a few times.
http://www.starchtech.com/cgp/cleangreen.html

They are made from starch and are biodegradable and compostable. A great alternative.

dave

Anonymous said...

Also, try http://puffystufftn.com. They're made from the grain Milo and work wonderfully!

Dave said...

Great alternatives.

Thanks folks.

dave