One of our pet peeves is when we see those darn foam packing peanuts lying around on the ground. Just tossing them in the garbage can doesn't work, people. So what do you do with them?
You take them to your local The UPS Store, or you go to Earth 911, type in your zip code, and check out the other drop-off locations.
How easy.
or... put an add on craigslist. e-bay freaks are always looking for packing materials. they'll contact you quickly and come to pick them up.
I use them in the bottom of flower/plant pots for drainage instead of the "pottery shards" you always see recommended. who has pottery shards? I also sometimes put a coffee filter over the hole to prevent dirt from falling out.
another reason to like Crate and Barrel--their peanuts are cornstarch-based, and dissolve in water.
Peanuts are easy -- the UPS store is always nice about taking them. What's difficult is 7 huge boxes full of odd-size mattress-like foam pieces. If you are faced with this as I once was (bought a set of dining chairs), here's the place to go:
http://www.bobsfoam.com/recycle.html
A bit of a drive depending on where you live, but at least they won't be going in the landfill. Also, you don't want to know how much 1800JUNK will charge you for picking up that much foam (their prices are not weight-based if you catch my drift).
This time of year you could string them up like popcorn and hang 'em on the tree.
(I take mine to UPS now that my experiences trying to give them away on Craigslist never seem to quite pan out.)
Wow, great post! I've recently had a good size influx of packing materials that I hate to throw away and can't store. Earth 911 is a great resource.
The ones that are water soluble are very fun kid toys -- you get them a *little* wet and they stick to one another. You can build fun sculptures that will later dissolve away in the sink.
At a retail store I worked at, we used to get many shipments filled with styro peanuts. We couldn't give them away fast enough. So, we finally got a 5 gal plastic bucket with lid, poured a couple gallons of acetone into it, and just kept adding peanuts. It's truly amazing to watch them fizz, boil, then disappear. When done adding the day's peanuts, we just snapped the lid back on. We kept adding peanuts for *years* before the bucket finally was filled with a plastic clay-like glop! The bucket full of glop was much easier to get rid of than the many room fulls of peanuts we would have aquired.
AlmostAD,
That is interesting, but the first thing that came to mind while reading your solution is "Is that not hazardous to your health in some way?"
I am imagining some chemical reaction between the acetone and the styrofoam forming a toxic cloud that you were inhaling. I hope not!
Um, where and how did you get rid of that (incredibly toxic) glop?
You can fill a beang bag
Freecycle!
In response to KK,
Acetone is no more than finger nail polish remover so the hazard to you heath is no more that removing finger nail polish.
In response to patrick,
If the acetone evaporates away then the remaining glop is styrofoam but without the air bubbles. No more toxic than the original packing peanuts. There is no chemical reaction going on, the styrofoam is dissolved in the acetone. If this is hard to comprehend, think of dissolving sugar in water and then letting the water evaporate. At then end you'll be left with a big glob of sugar.
view AA's profile