Don't Eat The Peanuts!

Last night my Dad brought home a box that had had some electronics shipped to his office. I thought he was going to show me some cool new gadget, but what he showed me instead was the packing peanuts.

He asked me if I noticed anything different about them.  I couldn't really see what he was talking about. I was surprised that he was looking so pleased because I know how he feels about the styrofoam packing peanuts. He really thinks they are some of the worst packaging you can find. They are hard to get rid of and not very environmentally friendly at all so his office won’t use them for shipping.

He told me these ones were different. They are made from starch and are completely biodegradable. You can just dump them in a sink or laundry tub, run water over them and they just dissolve and get flushed down the drain! Starch is not harmful at all to the environment either. If you wanted you could even just add them right to your composting pile. If your pet eats one by accident, it won’t make them sick either.

My Dad says that the company that makes the starch peanuts that he brought home sells them to big companies that ship a lot of stuff in a pellet form which takes up a lot less room than shipping them already made up. Then the companies that do the shipping can use a machine in their own warehouses to expand the peanuts and make them ready for packing. 

I love it when new technology solves a problem, especially when it’s an affordable solution that people will actually use. The next time I see a company still using the old packing peanuts, I’m going to write them and tell them how they can become more environmentally friendly by switching to starch peanuts.