Our Biodegradable Packing Peanuts

We had a great question come up from a customer recently regarding our packing material: How can I dispose of your packing beads?  

The packing peanuts we use to protect our glass packaging when sending out orders are biodegradable! Here are Pure Joy we have made a conscious choice to try and make every step of the process more eco-friendly, from growing our herbs to sending our products to you.

Our packing peanuts are made out of starch (corn in particular). Starch beads will breakdown and decompose as opposed to the toxic styrofoam beads that are sadly so often used. 

How Do I Know If the Peanuts Are Starch Based? 

The easiest way to tell if a packing peanut is biodegradable is to submerge it or run it under warm water, if it dissolves, it is biodegradable. The styrofoam ones are ridged, usually bright white or coloured, and do not dissolve in water. 

How To Dispose of Biodegradable Packing Peanuts? 

• Dissolve them in water: Run them under water or dissolve in a bucket. Sometimes agitation or heat can be helpful to break them down more quickly. Try stirring in a pot of boiling water. 
• Add to the compost pile: They will breakdown into organic matter and are safe for compost worms. 
• Use them as lawn or garden food: You can leave them to dissolve naturally - toss them on the lawn for the next rain or dig them into your garden. Or more efficiently use the water you dissolved them in to water your plants. Since they are made out of starch, they can act as a carbon based material, helping to nourish the soil. 
• Reuse them to ship out your next package

We always love to receive questions from you, if there's anything you want to know, just drop us a line at purejoyherb@gmail.com!