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The emerald coiled dragon I just received was also wrapped in bubble wrap instead of peanuts but fortunately it arrived in one piece
Arlla wrote:But instead of something normal like paper or packing peanuts, they used… popcorn. Real, honest to goodness popcorn.
In the first version of my “Packing Instructions” for people shipping fragile things to us, I listed popcorn as being suitable in a pinch. I’d read about it on some eco-friendly website, and it sounded like a great idea. I’m sure it sounded like a great idea to the folks running the web site, but I bet they didn’t think to actually try it first either.
So one day we got a package from someone who had taken my stupid advice. I am pretty sure that my instructions had something about using hot-air-popped popcorn, but the popcorn used looked like it was from about fifteen microwave packages. It was clearly not entirely oil free, had a funny color, and smelled of artificial ingredients.
Also, the popcorn had dried out and begun to crumble and, because the contents were not plastic wrapped, the bits were in everything and took ages to clean up.
Linda chewed me out good for this, between laughing and cursing maniacally whilst separating the contents from the packaging. After a few minutes I ran off to hide and to remove popcorn from my list of optional packing materials.
But let it be said that the package arrived with everything in great condition, and the smell dissipated after a month or two. If the contents had been plastic wrapped I think it would have worked great. But please don’t quote me on that. Particularly to Linda.
I am REALLY tempted to try this. I need to get a hot air popcorn popper to pop my own popcorn.
It makes sense that it would work because of how popcorn forms when heated..and I prefer eco friendly ways..
but with all the packing peanuts that i get from windstone..I do not want to just dump those…so I will just re-use those and maybe there will be a time when i have no packing peanuts and I can try the popcorn.Most (if not all) of the packing peanuts that Windstone uses are the eco-friendly ones made from corn starch. 😀 Grab one and run it under the water faucet. It will dissolve quite rapidly.
KoishiiKitty wrote:It makes sense that it would work because of how popcorn forms when heated..and I prefer eco friendly ways..
The one thing that astounded me most, I guess, was the weight of the package after the contents had been removed. It was ridiculously heavy.
So, in order of saving weight and thus shipping cost, the order is:
Expanded polystyrene “peanuts” {lightest}
Foam figure-of-eights (such as Windstone used to use) {light}
Puffed Food Starch (such as Windstone now uses) {heavy}
Popcorn {heaviest}And probably the eco-friendliness of these is in the exact reverse order. *sigh*
pegasi1978 wrote:Most (if not all) of the packing peanuts that Windstone uses are the eco-friendly ones made from corn starch. 😀 Grab one and run it under the water faucet. It will dissolve quite rapidly.
no kidding! I had no idea about that! that makes me quite happy!
pegasi1978 wrote:Most (if not all) of the packing peanuts that Windstone uses are the eco-friendly ones made from corn starch. 😀 Grab one and run it under the water faucet. It will dissolve quite rapidly.
Or eat ’em! They taste like cheese puffs without the cheese. No one believes me when I tell them that 🙂
pegasi1978 wrote:Most (if not all) of the packing peanuts that Windstone uses are the eco-friendly ones made from corn starch. Grab one and run it under the water faucet. It will dissolve quite rapidly.
I actually do like these for packing, but you have to be careful. Under pressure, they will squish to nothing, particularly in a moist environment. On the other hand, they do fare a whole lot better than those figure-eight foam things. Those squish to nothing if you just look at them with an attitude. I was rarely able to recycle the figure-eight foam peanuts from Windstone, because they always arrived pre-crushed, but I do recycle all the corn-starch ones.
The other great thing about the corn starch peanuts is that they don’t crumble and they don’t suffer from static electricity.
Kujacker wrote:pegasi1978 wrote:Most (if not all) of the packing peanuts that Windstone uses are the eco-friendly ones made from corn starch. 😀 Grab one and run it under the water faucet. It will dissolve quite rapidly.
Or eat ’em! They taste like cheese puffs without the cheese. No one believes me when I tell them that 🙂
XDXD I used to do this all the time when I worked in retail and we would get shippments with packed in those things. They’re really pretty tasty! Like you said, they’ve got the texture of a cheese puff, just without the cheese.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienBlackdesertwind wrote:😯 OMG…that’s funny!
Correct me if wrong but I find the box kind of small for the unicorn. you are lucky it did not break.The box with the popcorn and uni in it was just about bid enough to fit around her – pretty small. But it was double boxed in a bigger one with enough room for packing material all around it, so it came through fine.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienKujacker wrote:pegasi1978 wrote:Most (if not all) of the packing peanuts that Windstone uses are the eco-friendly ones made from corn starch. 😀 Grab one and run it under the water faucet. It will dissolve quite rapidly.
Or eat ’em! They taste like cheese puffs without the cheese. No one believes me when I tell them that 🙂
OMG YOU ARE RIGHT! I had to go eat one. that is really not all that bad! I like it!
Somebody sent me a piece of glass and used a mix of real and fake popcorn for packing. I thought it was gross. 😆
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