You might not think foam packing peanuts are an eco-friendly product, but they’re made from at least a fourth recycled materials, use half the energy to make than paper packing, and can be reused again and again. That makes them pretty green in my book.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
I love peanuts. Of course, I would never eat a green peanut, but there is a green one that I would use over and over again. This is expanded polystyrene plastic. You know it better as the packing peanut, and here’s what makes it so green. It’s got a minimum of 25% recycled material and is 99.6% air. It takes almost 50% less energy to make these peanuts than it does for a comparable amount of paper packaging, uses only a third of the waste water in the manufacturing process, creates only half the airborne emissions as paper and it contains no chlorofluorocarbons.
That’s a big mouthful but means they’re not bad for the environment. Packing peanuts are also recyclable. And it shouldn’t be too hard to do, because there’s over 1,500 collection sites in the U.S. for these foam peanuts. So, next time you put a care package together, show how much you really care, and don’t forget the peanuts.
