Two materials that look the same
Some packing peanuts dissolve in water because they are a starch product, and some are polystyrene foam that will not dissolve and must not be rinsed down a sink in a huge volume. A dissolve test on one peanut in a cup tells you which you have. Even a starch peanut is not something to wash down the drain by the trash-bag full, because a mass of gel can clog a household line. Polystyrene peanuts are not accepted in most bottle-and-can carts. Call the disposal site or your hauler and ask whether bagged peanuts are ordinary trash. A local mail shop sometimes takes clean, dry peanuts for reuse. Call and ask. Do not assume a shop wants a carload of mixed, dirty foam. If you search for a site by ZIP code or city, confirm the listing, because reuse programs stop without warning.
Keep them from becoming litter
Peanuts escape from the smallest tear. Put them in a tied bag inside another bag, and set that bag in a box so a shift in the trunk does not burst it. Do not pour peanuts loose into a truck bed. They will be on the highway behind you. Keep them out of the brush pile, the recycling dumpster, and the storm drain. Colored and white peanuts can be mixed only if the reuse shop said mixed colors are fine. Peanuts that cushioned a leaky bottle of solvent are not a reuse candidate. In that case the peanuts may be household hazardous waste along with the spilled product. Do not burn foam peanuts. Do not crush a bag of them into a recycling cart to hide the volume.
A small bag is still a described load
At the scale house, a few bags of peanuts with other household trash can usually go where household trash goes, if the site said so. Say you have bagged packing peanuts if the attendant asks why a bag is bulky and light. Do not empty the bags into the bay from a height on a windy day. Set them in the pile. If a mail shop agreed to take them, deliver only what they asked for and take the rest to the trash path you confirmed. Sweep the cab. One peanut stuck to a floor mat will be in the parking lot by the afternoon. Starch dust and foam dust are both litter.
Before you go
- Identify starch versus polystyrene, and do not wash a bag of either down the drain.
- Ask a mail shop or the disposal site which peanuts they will take.
- Double-bag them so they cannot blow out of the vehicle.
- Unload the closed bags in the trash bay, or deliver only what a reuse shop requested.
Pouring loose polystyrene peanuts into an open pickup bed for the drive to the site.
Questions people ask
Can I recycle peanuts with foam food containers?
Only if a program told you those specific peanuts are accepted with that foam. Most curbside carts do not take either one. Ask before you mix them.
What if the peanuts are dirty?
Dirty or solvent-stained peanuts are a poor reuse donation. Bag them and use the trash or household-hazardous-waste path the site confirms.
Search Dumpmapper by ZIP code or city, then call the site before you load the truck. Hours and accepted materials change.