Styrofoam Packing Peanuts Dissolve in Acetone Leaving Behind Non-Biodegradable Residue
This guy demonstrated that styrofoam packing peanuts were dissolved when they were dipped in acetone. It left behind a non-biodegradable residue which was harmful to the environment.
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*The underlying music rights are not available for license. For use of the video with the track(s) contained therein, please contact the music publisher(s) or relevant rightsholder(s).
Transcript
00:00Did you know that packing peanuts actually dissolve in water?
00:02It's like polystyrene actually sucks for the environment.
00:05While you weren't looking, I poured acetone into the glass.
00:08Acetone dissolves the peanuts, but it doesn't make the polystyrene disappear completely.
00:12It still leaves a terrifying gunk that kind of looks like mozzarella cheese.
00:15All acetone does is shrink the amount of space packing peanuts take up by releasing
00:19the trapped air inside them. Using a small amount of acetone,
00:21I will now try to fit an entire popcorn bowl inside the glass.
00:24I think now's a good time to bring up alternatives because we can't be using
00:27something so unnecessary if it takes 15 generations to decompose.
00:30The good news is there are starch-based packing peanuts that don't cost that much more
00:34and dissolve in water alone, unlike the polystyrene ones shown here.
00:37And no, of course I didn't buy these just for the sake of the video,
00:40they came in a recent package and I didn't know they were being shipped with these awful peanuts.