I know many of us here like to recycle our packing materials. It is, after all, the responsible thing to do whenever possible. That said, I received a package today that was packed full of dryer lint--including a bunch of hair-- to cushion the book.  The mess it made was ridiculous and for whatever reason it kind of grossed me out.  Is this something you do or have seem very often?  I want to avoid the situation in the future, but it's not worth setting up an RC and alienating folks if it's a material you don't often see. 

Thanks!

Dryer Lint would definitely gross me out too.

So this is as atypical as I thought? I'm still new, so I'm still working on figuring out what passes for nomal around here, LOL.  Good, I really did not want to have to deal with setting up a "Please do not utilize dryer lint as a packaging material" RC.

It was definately dryer lint--it was a plain manilla envelope full of lots of white and blue lint and a nice scattering of hair. :( 

I appreciate people wanting to find a use for everything, but using dryer lint to pack books for other people is not cool. Fortunately, I've not experienced that yet!

I've never seen dryer lint as packing. Gross!

You may or may not be inclined to do this, but if it was me, I would probably PM the sender and say something like

"Thanks for the book. The envelope it came in had something that appears to be dryer lint in it. Most members who recieve books would probably prefer the book to be wrapped in plastic (like saran wrap or recycled grocery bags) to protect it. Many people are allergic to dust, and dryer lint might make a book unreadable for them. Thanks for considering this!"

I've not seen that ever before.

It wouldn't be so bad if they'd packed the lint in plastic baggies then tucked those around the book.  At least put the book in a bag so it's not full of lint.

It's an interesting idea, but I think I'd be a bit squeemish too. Maybe if there were 2 envelopes--a smaller one with the book and a larger one with the lint.  That wouldn't be too bad.

My dryer lint goes into the compost pile.

(eta: I'm trying to imagine how many loads of landury it would take to do that.  It'd take me weeks and weeks to get that much lint.)

 Like Liesl said, I opened one of those padded manilla envelopes wrong just last week and had a gray dusty mess everywhere that reminded me of dryer lint....but in the year I've been here swapping, I've never received actual dryer lint in a package.  It blows my mind that someone would do that.

Thank for the email, Sara!  I just sent out since it was much nicer than the ones I had tried to compose.

Since some of you have been here for years and this is new, I guess I'll just treat this as one of those random 'what was he/she thinking' experiences.

Thanks again, everyone!

Dryer lint!  Disgusting!!!

I've opened those padded manilla envelopes and got that dusty stuff all over but that's not dryer lint.  Yucky to the max!

Dryer lint? Are you kidding me? I've never seen that before and I would definitely be grossed out and send a PM to that person. Also absolutely hate those envelopes with the gray dusty stuff in them that goes everywhere.

Wow.... I'm sort of speechless, LOL!  I have this image in my head where your request for the book came in just as the lint trap was being cleaned.... the lightbulb went off and somehow a connection was made between the dryer lint and packing material... book... meet.... ummm... lint!

Sorry you received a dusty, icky book, but I can't thank you enough for the giggles.  :)

Well, that's a new one. It would never occur to me to use dryer lint as packing material and I am happy to say none of the PBS members who have sent me over 1200 books thought of it either.

I would also drop as polite a note as I could muster to the sender. Sara drafted a very good one.

Please don't let this incident put you off PBS, it's a wonderful site.

Okay.  The very thought of dryer lint as packaging made me gag.  I don't need anyone else's pubic hair, thank you very much.  **shudder**  The thought is just disgusting.

Also absolutely hate those envelopes with the gray dusty stuff in them that goes everywhere.

Count me among those who hate these envelopes too.

Ewww. No that should not be acceptable. That is ridiculous. It's one thing to recycle boxes, and packing materials but dryer lint? What next? Left over popcorn and peanuts?

Janelle...Lol. I had popcorn and old holey underwear but I deleted that and added peanuts.

Oh gross!  That is something I had never thought of, it's nice to try and recycle, but don't send someone that with all your old hair and ickies on it....

I am sorry you had to deal with that mess.  I am sitting here laughing at the vision of someone scrapping this out of their dryer and stuffing it an envelope.   Keep that kind of packing material in the family.  The hair - nasty!

that's a little too green for me.  ewww!!!

Ewww.  Just... eeeeewwww!  I don't even like cleaning out the lint trap - bleh:P

I don't like cleaning out the dry trap either and that is just with my families hairs and such, I can't imagine getting someone elses in an envelope!  Yuck