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Comment by tda | Hacker News Reader

I sometimes see biodegradable packing peanuts that resemble tasteless Cheese puffs used as alternative. So much better, I wonder why the styrofoam puffs are even still allowed.

Another side note, look at this sign that I've seen aboard vessels: https://vesselplacards.com/product/garbage-overboard-marpol-...

It basically states "Don't throw garbage overboard, You could be breaking the law" as if it being illegal should be the only reason not to dump your waste in the environment.

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"resemble tasteless Cheese puffs"

Resemble in looks or taste?

Both. They're made of corn starch, which is what puffy Cheetos are made of, and manufactured literally the same way, except without the cheese flavor powder mixed in. They taste like "nothing" (well, they probably taste like pure corn starch but I've never eaten that so I don't have a reference.)

Source: a member of my immediate family worked at a company that manufactured them and brought home many samples. We'd freak people out by eating them. The joke was always "What do you pack packing material in for shipping?"

Out of curiosity, do you risk rodent infestations using those? I would imagine rodents/bugs happily eat most human food, cheese puffs included, so if this is literally the same won't it suffer rodent risk?

The warehouse I worked in had a rodent infestation, they didn't eat the edible packing peanuts as far as I could tell though. -- never saw any with bites out of them and they didn't noticeably disappear.

As an aside, don't drink from beer/pop cans without washing the tops.

I'm sure theres a joke about Carling/Budweiser/whatever here.

Edit, got it: Don't do that, you'll wipe away all the flavour!

Esprit de l'escalier

Oh that last sentence brought too many imaginative images of me drinking from cans. I will forget i ever read that.

please elaborate on why not? I would think they'd have to be relatively sterile. Boxes are stacked flat, can tops must be in a pringles style stack until they're assembled into a can.

Where are they contaminated?

I remember a story going around about people dying from rat urine on soda cans [1], but the veracity of the claim is questionable.

[1] https://www.hoax-slayer.net/leptospirosis-death-warning-rat-...

For soda/beer cans, wipe a damp cloth on them and try to get into that little moat around the top. It's almost always filthy.

I don't work in an industry where I encounter bulk packing materials day-to-day. I would assume the answer is "yes"? Any large warehouse for any type of product using any type of packing material probably suffers rodent risk. At least, any warehouse I've ever been in.

I use these. While theoretically they can attract pests, I've never noticed any biological activity associated with them.

I used to work in shipping/receiving. Everyone there ate them at least once on a lark. They don't taste like nothing, but they really don't taste like much. Not as crunchy as cheetos, but i'd honestly rather eat them than cheetos.

I wonder if they would be like stale cheetos, that would make sense, ha. I agree with your statements.

Look AND taste. They are starch-based, biodegradable and nontoxic. Not very tasty but I've tried one!

A bit of both

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