A Mountain of Plastic

I pulled away layer after layer of plastic wrap and Styrofoam sheets and piled the material next to the sheets of plywood which had made up a short-lived shipping box. I had just inhereted a mountain of packaging waste. Unfortunately, it would've been difficult to avoid if the archival quality display cases were to get to our rural Museum and arrive intact. So, I lamented to other staff as they passed by my mess and started to think about how I could repurpose all that packaging.

So much Styrofoam! And many recycling companies no
longer accept polystyrene products.

And all that plastic wrap!

Finding ways to reuse "disposable" items is a common practice in ingenuity around the Museum. We modify some materials year after year to be part of  our exhibit elements, create enrichement supplies for our live birds out of egg cartons, and take packing paper home to wrap holiday gifts. Some of these efforts might not make the biggest difference, but it's still a healthy practice.

As for my mountain of packaging materials, I think there's a few ways to make it useful for a bit longer. Styrofoam can be very handy for a variety of projects. We use this type of polystyrene as a base for taxidermy projects and to hold batches of recently pinned insects. It can even be sculpted with a knife to be used as an economical body form in taxidermy. Plastic wrap can always be reused for a variety of fragile items that we ship out, move between locations, or want to better protect at the Museum. I must emphasize how convenient it's been to have that plastic on-hand--our many acrylic cases wouldn't survive storage without that persistant protection! And who can't find a use for free wooden boards? I don't have a specific project for the plywood yet, but I imagine it will only be a short matter of time until I do. 

The wings and feet of this great gray owl
were prepared and allowed to dry on a reused piece of Styrofoam.

Packaging waste isn't fun, but finding ways to reuse all that plastic, foam, and wood sure can be.