Not all packing peanuts offer equal protection

Pak Mail accepts clean packing supplies — packing peanuts, Styrofoam, bubble wrap, paper — for recycling. We recently received a small box of cornstarch peanuts. Since they break down with moisture, they are great for the environment. For the same reason, these peanuts are not so great for packing fragile china for small-package shipping with UPS, FedEx, DHL, and USPS. We mix our recycled cornstarch peanuts with foam peanuts to make sure items are protected throughout the shipping process. All items are bagged to prevent dissolving cornstarch peanuts from sticking to them.

Check out the picture of cornstarch peanuts. The ten on the left are still whole; the ten on the right started to dissolve from moisture and compact into tiny flat “rocks.” Any questions?

Cornstarch peanuts dissolve with moisture.

Clean Styrofoam, peanuts, bubble wrap, packing paper

Pak Mail accepts and recycles clean packing materials — white Styrofoam, both molded and flat sheets, not food containers; packing peanuts; bubble wrap; and packing paper. Please separate by type of material and remove all packing tape.

We combine these recycled materials with new protective packaging products and corrugated boxes in our packing of fragile items for shipping.

Thanks!

Creative design ideas for used pallets

Colorado College Student Shipment on a Pallet

Pak Mail regularly ships large items — household goods, estates, artwork, delicate equipment — on pallets. How can a wooden pallet be recycled? At the suggestion of an online design company, www.designrulz.com, we added a new tip about creative ideas for recycling wooden pallets. Check out their recycling ideas here.

Holiday Giving – Drop off new, unwrapped toys at Pak Mail Colorado from now until December 15.

Toys for Tots was founded in 1947 by Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, in Los Angeles, California. Five thousand toys were collected that year during the campaign before Christmas. The first toy was a handmade doll.

Toys for Tots 1992 Poster

Almost 50 years later, in 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved Toys for Tots as an official activity of the US Marine Corps and an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve. The 2012 Toys for Tots campaign distributed nearly 16.8 million toys to more than 7 million children.

The local Toys for Tots coordinator contacted us to join the 2016 campaign. This is Toys for Tots’ 100-year anniversary and  Pak Mail Colorado’s fifth year as a Colorado Springs Toys for Tots drop-off location. The program’s mission is to collect new, unwrapped toys and to distribute them as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community. Their goal is to provide these children with a message of hope and to help them experience the joy of Christmas.

Providing a convenient drop-off location for Toys for Tots fits in well with Pak Mail Colorado’s other community service projects: Cell Phones for Soldiers and Styrofoam and packing peanut recycling. Giving back to the community is what it’s all about.

There are several ways to get involved; see the Toys for Tots Call to Action. The ultimate success of the annual campaign depends on local community support and the generosity of folks who donate the toys. It’s an honor to play our part. Thank you for doing your part to help families in need.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Packing Peanuts for Container Gardening

Are you planting this Spring — flowers, vegetables and herbs? Tight on space and using containers for your gardening? You can save your back and reduce the weight of the containers with Styrofoam packing peanuts. Make sure you use the pesky plastic peanuts and not cornstarch ones. Cornstarch peanuts might be better for the environment, but when wet will dissolve into a gooey mess. How-to resources abound on the Internet. Simply search “using packing peanuts for container gardening” and you’ll have plenty of advice. Here are two that might be of interest: Garden Artistics or eHow Home. Instructions vary, but the basics are:

• Replace half to two-thirds of the potting soil with packing peanuts.
• Place the peanuts in the bottom of the container.
• Fill the rest of the container with potting soil.
• Add the plants and some water.

Pak Mail sells packing peanuts for container gardening. They are a lightweight solution to patio container gardening and provide excellent drainage. If you have an overabundance of peanuts from shipments, bring them to the store and we’ll recycle them for you.

1992 Toys for Tots Poster

Toys for Tots was founded in 1947 by Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, in Los Angeles, California. Five thousand toys were collected that year during the campaign before Christmas. The first toy was a handmade doll.

Almost 50 years later, in 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved Toys for Tots as an official activity of the US Marine Corps and an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve. The 2012 Toys for Tots campaign distributed nearly 16.8 million toys to more than 7 million children.

The local Toys for Tots coordinator contacted us to join the 2014 campaign. This is Pak Mail 232’s third year as a Colorado Springs Toys for Tots drop-off location. The program’s mission is to collect new, unwrapped toys and to distribute them as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community. It is their goal to provide these children with a message of hope and to help them experience the joy of Christmas.

Providing a convenient drop-off location for Toys for Tots fits in well with Pak Mail 232’s other community service projects: Cell Phones for Soldiers and Styrofoam and packing peanut recycling. Giving back to the community is what it’s all about.

There are several ways to get involved; see the Toys for Tots Call to Action. The ultimate success of the annual campaign depends on local community support and the generosity of folks who donate the toys. It’s an honor to play our part.

Drop off new, unwrapped toys at Pak Mail 232 from now until December 17.

Everyone’s heard about the devastating tornadoes ravaging parts of Oklahoma.  It seems to be one weather disaster after another on the daily news, with no relief in sight. However, there is light in this time of darkness — a home in the path of destruction in Oklahoma survived amid mass wreckage because of its durable construction. See the full story covered by our local KRDO 13 News station here. This particular house was built with Tegrant Protexic ICFs (insulated concrete form), which is highly wind and fire resistant.  The hollow blocks of Styrofoam are supported by rebar and filled with concrete.  Tegrant uses recycled Styrofoam to make its products.

Something unique about Pak Mail is that, in addition to packing and shipping, we also accept clean Styrofoam for recycling! We bag the Styrofoam pieces that people bring in and take them around the corner from the store to Tegrant. Instead of sending this non-biodegradable material to the landfill, it’s re-manufactured into concrete forms. The Oklahoma home constructed with this building product withstood one of the most devastating tornadoes in recent memory. It’s just one way Pak Mail helps out not only our local community, but the national community as well. We’re humbled to know that a local business we donate to has made an impact in a time of grief. Many Coloradans are starting to look into building homes with the Tegrant form because of its fire-resistant and insulating properties.

Did you receive a shipment of fragile items protected with Styrofoam? Not sure what to do with this packing material? Bring it to Pak Mail! If we can’t re-use it in our packaging, we’ll recycle it with Tegrant and make it count for something!