What to do With Pesky Packing Peanuts
by: Dawn Burden Bates
We do everything we can to do our part in the effort to protect the environment. We recycle. We take extra care to combine errands so we don't waste gasoline (especially at these prices). We even make purchases online to save energy and keep the paper catalogs at bay. And if you are like me, you just love getting packages in the mail. Except... when I open the package and find that my item has been protected from damage in shipping with the dreaded polystyrene packing peanuts! Not only do these pesky peanuts make a huge mess, they are utterly indestructible. When these things end up in landfills, they NEVER degrade. Future inhabitants of our planet will be able to study our culture using these suckers.
So what do we do?
1. The best alternative is to simply not use these peanuts. There are alternative packing peanuts available made from starch that almost instantly dissolve in water. Ask your online retailer to begin using this more environmentally friendly alternative to polystyrene.
2. When you receive a package packed in peanuts, test them by running one under water to see if it dissolves. If so, you can simply dump them in your sink a little at a time and run the dissolved peanuts down the drain. They are safe for the water supply since they are made from vegetable and other organic matter.
3. When the peanuts don't dissolve, there are a few things we can do. When you have a package to ship that requires a bit of protection, use the peanuts. Ask your recipient to do the same. At least they don't end up in a landfill immediately.
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What to do With Pesky Packing Peanuts
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About The Author
Dawn Burden Bates is a busy wife, mother, environmentalist, and webmaster of the highly informative recycling website, A Recycling Revolution. For both basic and extensive information on recycling, composting, reusing, and reducing, visit http://www.recycling-revolution.com.
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