Reduce plastic waste while keeping your prized possessions safe from moisture damage.
If you’ve bought shoes, torn into beef jerky, or taken certain medication recently, you have likely pulled out at least one tiny silica gel packet. After briefly wondering why your new backpack contained a warning-labeled squishy little pillow, you probably chucked it in the garbage with the rest of the packaging.
First, here’s a bit of background on the silicone dioxide-based packets. The jewelry-like silica gel beads are a desiccant, a category of materials used to keep products dry by attracting water to their surface . Their moisture-wicking power makes silica gel packets immensely appealing to manufacturers, preventing water damage in products in transit or sitting on store shelves.
“These little silica gel packets, they’re in everything but [use in desiccation is] actually a very small percentage of what this industrial sand is used for,” explained Goodin. “It’s less than 1 percent of the eventual end use.” He estimates that over 60 percent of silica sand ——goes to the oil and gas industry for fracking and other needs. Glass production uses up another roughly 10 percent.
For most of these packets, a single use is all they’re likely going to get. Still, the packets that encase the silica gel beads are a relatively understudied source of single-use plastic pollution, explained“By function, [silica gel packets are] a desiccant,” said Baechler. “So if these packets are being dumped into waterways, or even onto land, it can dry out whatever environment ends up in, which can be problematic.
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