What Would Mabel Do

They say necessity is the mother of invention.  I am leaping onto my soap box to shout out that it really, truly is necessary for the world to stop using styrofoam packing peanuts.  For anyone who has wrestled with them, or maybe walked around with a rogue static clinger on their ass until they turned in their chair to squeak it around and discover it, it's totally self-explanatory and obvious. For many reasons, not just a squeaky ass.  Hands down, they are the most unsatisfying packaging material.  Just plain wrong.

I shop.  I shop online.  Many things come to me in the mail.  eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and so on.  I could confess my shopping addiction here, but I'll save that for another post. Seriously, the shopping would not be as embarrassing if I could hide the evidence of bags and boxes of styrofoam piling up in my closets and basement.  Hear me now:  I avoid buying merch from people that I know or learn use styrofoam packing peanuts.  Yeah, you know who you are, but do you know that you are driving me flipping crazy?  I'm seriously considering compiling a list and advertising it.  Hell, I  might form a non-profit with that as the only agenda.  Now, that small bit could seriously be a good thing for the world.  I found an organization that recommends alternative reuse like filling your pet's bed with them.  Ick.  Squeaky toys I can see but squeaky dog bed?  Forget it.  Oh, and my fav of recommendations: scrapbookers can creatively use them with ink to print on paper.  With the mountain I have accumulating, I could wallpaper the Eiffel Tower.  And, dare I ask, then what do I do with them when I am done with my craft project?

Even Mabel, as patient and tolerant as she is (and a mighty fine shopper to boot), doesn't approve of them and hardly ever uses styrofoam peanuts.  The woman is thrifty and the queen of reuse.  If they come to her, she will reuse them and even then, she puts them in a plastic bag to contain them before sending them out again.  Considerate.  That's what Mabel is.  Now, for all people who ship things, try to be more like Mabel.  Would ya?

Consider - the root of considerate - a green alternative like Cushion Cubes made of recycled paper,  or Paper Nuts which are 100% recycled, and finally the water soluble dealios by Starch Tech.  Pick one or all three.

A society for the reuse of them does exist with drop off sites.  I also take them to shipping stores for reuse, but truly, even though it's better than the trash, that's just passing the buck. They MUST just get out of circulation entirely.  Before I lose my mind.