Plastic Air Pillows In-Store Drop-Off with Plastic Bags Ways to Reuse Reuse for Packaging: Keep plastic air pillows around the house to reuse. They can be used to pad boxes for shipping or storage. Take them to a Shipping Store: Some shipping stores will accept air pillows and other packing materials for reuse. It depends on policies and current supply, so call ahead to ask. Deflate First Plastic air pillows should be deflated before they are recycled with plastic bags. They must be clean and dry.