Today’s Green Living tip comes from Pamela Sterling, owner of Laguna Green Southern California’s first exclusively green kitchen and bath showroom, located in Laguna Beach.

There are a few things that are just a little more challenging to recycle than others, and Styrofoam peanuts is one of them.  Styrofoam is actually the brand name for the material called polystyrene.  Polystyrene is manufactured from petroleum and benzene, a carcinogen, is used in its production. 

Many curbside recycling programs, including Orange County’s Waste Management, do not accept polystyrene.  And if you dump it in the regular trash, it ends up in our landfills and virtually never biodegrades.  With the holiday season on its way, the chance that some peanuts, or other forms of Styrofoam packaging will end up in our homes, is pretty high. 

Here are some suggestions on how to recycle those nasty buggers.

1. Take them to your local UPS Store, or other shipping location.  I have found that my local UPS store is happy to take my peanuts and reuse them.  Sometimes they even take the box they came in.  You can find your nearest UPS store at www.ups.com/dropoff.  Another resource for finding a store near you that will take the peanuts off your hands is the Peanut Hotline (I’m not kidding). The Peanut Hotline is a 24-hour consumer hotline and Web site directory service that provides referrals to the nearest locations that accept loose fill for reuse.  You can contact them at 800-828-2214.  
2. If you don’t have a UPS store near you, there is this really cool site called Earth911.com. You can go to that site and in the Find Recycling Centers field, type polystyrene, and enter your ZIP code.  The site will then list for you all the recycle centers in your area that accept polystyrene.  This is a great site to bookmark, as it will come in handy for other recycling questions you may have.
3. If you don’t have a place to recycle the peanuts near you, you can mail back the peanuts to a foam manufacturer.  Its on your dime, but at least you’ll be helping the planet.  You can find a PDF list of companies that participate in the mail-back program at www.epspackaging.org/info.html.
4. Finally, you may just want to hang on to the peanuts and use them for the next package you have to ship — and you might want to tuck a little note inside, sharing these tips with the recipient, so they know how to recycle the peanuts on their end.

The good news is that more and more biodegradable packaging materials are coming on the market all the time, made out of plant based and/or recycled materials, and that’s good for all of us, planet and people alike.

Pam Sterling is owner of Laguna Green and is a speaker on all things green.  To find out more about Pam and Laguna Green, visit the Web site at www.laguna-green.com.

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