Can Packing Peanuts Be Used As Insulation

Osborn a former associate editor replies.

Can packing peanuts be used as insulation.

It also provides good insulation to keep products hot or cold while in transit. By preventing heat loss packing peanuts make lovely insulators. In a wall cavity they would offer little resistance to air movement so they would be of limited r value. The very reason why plastic peanuts work well as packing makes them a bad choice for wall insulation.

Most packing peanuts are made of polystyrene. From packaging peanuts that protect merchandise while in transit to insulation in homes and more it is useful in numerous situations. Anyone have any thoughts about this. Use packing peanuts to make a quick and easy diy cooler.

Just put your cold drinks in a tub full of polystyrene peanuts and let them serve as insulation. I m not convinced that it s effective or even safe. Unfortunately this material is non biodegradable and terrible for the environment. Plastic peanuts hold air that helps cushion whatever is being shipped.

Astonishingly it takes more than a million years for styrofoam packing peanuts to decompose. The r value of polystyrene is about 4 0 per inch. Has anyone ever seen this before. We found millions of packing peanuts loose in the attic presumably intended to function as insulation.

But the problem with using packing peanuts for attic insulation is that while the individual peanuts may have an r value of about 4 0 per inch the peanuts have large air spaces between them which allows air currents to easily flow through a layer of packing peanuts.