Just like plastic water bottles and garbage bags, foam packing peanuts are known to be a part of many landfills worldwide. Peanuts are easy to manufacture, and work great for protecting items shipped, but are extremely difficult to breakdown and recycle. According to Recyclinginternational.com, researchers at Purdue University have an innovative way of reusing these Styrofoam pieces after they are used.

According to these researchers these peanuts that are made up of either polystyrene or starch are recycled into oddly shaped fragments of carbon-containing nanoparticles and microsheets. These fragments are then pushed into the negative side of a lithium-ion battery, which provide a larger surface area. Because of the larger surface area, these batteries boost draining and charging time, compared to normal manufactured batteries: boosts as high as 13 percent compared to commercial lithium-ion batters with the maximum capacity available.

The best part of these boosted batteries, is that packing peanuts can now be recycled completely. Before, only about 10 percent were recycled, due to the fact they are notoriously difficult to break down. Additionally, the process is extremely inexpensive, and is practical for large-scale manufacturing. Now these packing peanuts can fill batteries, rather than landfills.