Have you ever opened a package and been showered with small foam-like, peanut-shaped objects? Most people usually don’t pay much attention to them anymore. Packing peanuts have been around nearly fifty years, having been first introduced by the Dow Chemical Company in the 1960’s. Traditional packing peanuts are made out of polystyrene. Unfortunately, polystyrene can take hundreds of years to decompose naturally.
There are now new, environmentally friendly packing peanuts on the market that are made out of corn starch, wheat, and other natural materials. They biodegrade quickly and some even dissolve in water. Many shippers will put a slip in with your shipment letting you know if they use biodegradable peanuts. In that case, you can just add them to your compost pile.
Newer peanuts come in three different colors – white, green, and pink – and each color serves a different purpose.
1. Green packing peanuts are made from at least 70% recycled material.
2. White peanuts are composed of at least 70% raw (i.e., non-recycled) materials.
3. Pink-colored peanuts are also composed of at least 70% raw, non-recycled materials. They have been coated with an antistatic spray. Pink packing peanuts are used for packaging electronic devices – computers, TVs, etc.
There are also different shapes of packing peanuts as well; each shape means that it is distributed by a different company.
When all possible it is important to help mother Earth by using biodegradable packing peanuts. With so many people trying to go green, why not send them their packages in the mail with green packing peanuts. These green packing peanuts are eco-friendly and are dissolvable since they are made from cornstarch.
Here are a few additional suggestions for creatively reusing packing peanuts so you can save money and save the planet:
1. Reuse: Shipping services like Mailboxes, Etc. will often accept peanut donations. And like most businesses, you are eventually bound to be moving or shipping something yourself. In that case, you can reuse them yourself. Just store packing peanuts until you’re ready to ship them off to someone else.
2. Recycle: More and more recycling programs are accepting packing peanuts, but make sure you put them in a bag or box so that they don’t escape and invade the neighborhood.
3. Refuse: If you don’t want to deal with packing peanuts at all, ask and encourage suppliers to use the new biodegradable variety. Sometimes companies, particularly smaller outfits, will agree to ship your order with shredded newspaper or some other more eco-friendly substitute.
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