I order a lot of stuff online, so I get a lot of boxes that have styrofoam packing peanuts. For some reason, most of these companies think I’m running low, so they send me about ten times more peanuts than are needed to protect the contents of the box.
Does anyone know of a use for them besides throwing them away? I hate filling up my trashcan and the landfills with them, but I just have much more than I could ever use for gifts.
You could dissolve your packing peanuts in a bit of acetone (finger nail polish remover) and paint the mixture on anything that needs waterproofing or laminating.
Man, aren’t they a royal pain in the ass?!
The easiest thing to do would be to find a Mail Boxes Ect. or similar place that recycles them.
There’s one kind that look like giant white Cheetoes that are O.K. to throw away. They’re made of cornstarch and melt almost immediately in water.
As far as uses go, I’ve heard people line their flowerpots with them to help with drainage.
Yeah, my wife did that on all of her outside potted plants. Just remember to make sure that there are holes in the pots. She woke up one morning after a heavy rainstorm to find all of her plants floating on top of dirty styrofoam.
I used them to insulate a stock tank that I buried in the ground while running a heated water experiment outside. Try finding those damn things when you ain’t got any… drove me crazy!!
Here’s an option if feeling mischievous. http://www.theswindle.com/Dsc00001.jpg
Styrofoam peanuts are a pox upon the earth. If they’re not padding a box, they’re pollution. I used to work in downtown LA, and everywhere I went, peanuts drifted around the streets, and at times when it was windy, you could see tiny ground up styrofoam bits in the air. At one point it was getting so bad that the City Council was considering implementing a tax on styrofoam.
I note that there is a new kind of biodegradeable peanut, they dissolve completely in water. All peanuts should be like this.
one word: CONFETTI!!!
or you can save 'em up, then fill a huuuuuuuuuge box or container with 'em, and jump in. that’s what i do with 'em. wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…
actually, i’ve found that “Hobby Cement [sup]TM[/sup]” does the same thing. we have it here in Taiwan, but i’m not sure about the rest of the world. i found this out accidentally, while doing a project that involved much glueing of styrofoam (don’t ask). I painted the cement on, thinking it would act as glue, and the styrofoam dissolved and scared me peeless. also, i had to redo the whole friggin project. sigh
(after rereading that) gawd, the second half looks like a hijack, doesn’t it?
I’m always happy when I get the cornstarch kind. You can just dump them in the sink, turn on the water, and they dissolve.
Kids can build with them, too. If you dampen the edge on a sponge it softens enough that you can stick them to each other. Good rainy day fun.
Give them to a local store that deals in mail order.
Put one on the floor next to a friend, then casually walk by and step on it. When it makes the “bone crushing, joint snapping” noise fall to the floor in mock pain holding your knee.
With a small box of these you can do the trick to hundreds of your closest friends.
I really cannot help with what use you might put them towards. Something tells me your insurance agent would twitch if you used them as insulation. But I’ll add that I long ago picked up referring to them as “angel turds.”
I’m sure that helped.
The bean bag chair in the corner of my living room is filled with them. Since I had so many from moving out to Montana, combined with various sorts of packages from home, I had my mom send out an empty chair shell with one of the packages, and I filled it here.
My daughter works in a used book store which ships books worldwide, and so I just save mine and send them in with her every now and then when I’ve got too many. I always save mine, as I will use them every now and then. If you frequent a used book store that ships, ask if they want YOUR old peanuts. My daughter’s store also happily accepts and reuses plastic shopping bags.
I find that I need to have about a cubic foot or so of these peanuts on hand to feel comfortable, just as I need to have at least 10 each of #6 and #10 envelopes. I hate BUYING peanuts.
Ever heard of a spud gun? Load it up with your potato, pour in some of the foam peanuts and get a nice short range visual treat.
Along the same lines, I once filled up a friend’s pickup bed with 'em. Would have been a lot funnier to fill up the cab, but I couldn’t find an accomplice to steal his keys. I should note that I also left a garbage bag for him, tied to the antenna, so he wouldn’t leave a trail of peanuts all the way home. I’m an enviro-friendly prankster.
