What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[igorsMistress]

I think we are in agreement. My point is that I am getting brand new food grade 5-gallon buckets for "free" at the bucket sales and, to me, that is even better than paying a small fee for getting food grade buckets from a bakery that need to be washed out and cleaned. In either case, you end up with a food grade plastic bucket.

Or, are you saying that the stamped brand-new food grade buckets from the tool stores are not food safe?

In any case, I 100% agree the frugality is good, but not at the expense of safety. Nothing (potentially) costs more money than unsafe practices. I don't start working on a project unless I have proper safety gear first. And I don't want to expose myself or put anything into my body that could have negative effects.

I don’t know, are they food safe? In my mind a bucket from the tool store is more for utility purposes than food. They smell different to me. I haven’t been to your feed store and haven’t got any from the places you get them to know. You had a new bucket without having had anything in it was good grade, but maybe I misunderstood.

 

[saysfaa]

Menards has some labeled food safe and some not. I don't think HD, Lowes, Meijer, or Walmart are food safe. I don't worry about it much, though, at least for dry, nonreactive foods. I think much of the difference is documenting tighter quality control more than much difference between them.

 

[gtaus]

I don’t know, are they food safe? In my mind a bucket from the tool store is more for utility purposes than food. They smell different to me. I haven’t been to your feed store and haven’t got any from the places you get them to know. You had a new bucket without having had anything in it was good grade, but maybe I misunderstood.

Well, I was commenting that the plastic buckets have recycle codes of #2, #4, or #5 and that plastic is supposed to be food grade. The buckets are new and clean. I would not put any food in them without washing them, but I suspect the plastic is safe for the chicken feed and grains I am currently storing in them.

I had a Senior's Cooking Class this afternoon and asked out instructor about food grade buckets from bakeries, etc... She told there was one bakery in town that was selling their square frosting buckets, with lids, for $3.00 for the set. I'm sure that if the bucket was used to hold frosting, it would be food safe. I don't have any of those buckets, so I don't know what recycle code they have stamped on them.

 

[gtaus]

I was in town today and stopped by our Home Depot to check out if anything interesting would jump out at me. As I have mentioned before, it pays to always check out the cull wood bins selection. Today I hit a jackpot!

I found 2 full 4X8 foot sheets of 5/8 inch particle boards in the cull bins marked down from about $40.00 per sheet to only $2.00 per sheet! Our Home Depot does not sell these boards locally, but they used it as product shelving, so it was discounted down to almost nothing just to get it out of the store. That's my kind of deal!

I would have loved to keep them in 4X8 sheets, but I had to have the guys cut them in half, to 4X4 sheets, so I could fit them in the old Explorer to take them home. At that price, I was going to take it however I could get them home.

Bonus find: I got another one of those Ryobi value kits on markdown. They claim to have $90 of value packaged in a kit and sell them for $20.00. Probably a decent price at $20.00, but I found them marked down to $5.02 per kit today. Plus, I got a 10% veteran's discount on top of that.

At that price, I will be tossing one of these kits in each tool bag I have. They should be plenty good for any pallet projects and such I will be working on this spring and summer. I wanted some multi-tool blades, but if you bought them separately, you would be spending close to $20 just for the 2 multi-tool blades in this this kit. So, I got those multi-tool blades and all the other stuff in the kit for only $4.52 plus tax. Excellent use of my money!

 

[igorsMistress]

Well, I was commenting that the plastic buckets have recycle codes of #2, #4, or #5 and that plastic is supposed to be food grade. The buckets are new and clean. I would not put any food in them without washing them, but I suspect the plastic is safe for the chicken feed and grains I am currently storing in them.

I had a Senior's Cooking Class this afternoon and asked out instructor about food grade buckets from bakeries, etc... She told there was one bakery in town that was selling their square frosting buckets, with lids, for $3.00 for the set. I'm sure that if the bucket was used to hold frosting, it would be food safe. I don't have any of those buckets, so I don't know what recycle code they have stamped on them.

As I understand it 2 is best for long term storage. It stands up to boiling water for sterilization so even hot items can be placed in them without leaching chemicals. Other numbers might be ok depending on the application but of the options available, 2 is what I look for and stick to.

 

[gtaus]

As I understand it 2 is best for long term storage. It stands up to boiling water for sterilization so even hot items can be placed in them without leaching chemicals. Other numbers might be ok depending on the application but of the options available, 2 is what I look for and stick to.

Thanks for the info. I checked my new free buckets that I got at Harbor Freight, and they all were stamped #2 recyclable. I am transferring my chicken feeds into the buckets because they take up less space in the garage stacked then my feed bags sitting on the floor, plus, with the bucket lids, the buckets are more mouse proof.

 

[igorsMistress]

Thanks for the info. I checked my new free buckets that I got at Harbor Freight, and they all were stamped #2 recyclable. I am transferring my chicken feeds into the buckets because they take up less space in the garage stacked then my feed bags sitting on the floor, plus, with the bucket lids, the buckets are more mouse proof.

Wow, that’s fantastic then! I will have to visit harbor freight for sure.

 

[saysfaa]

Well, I was commenting that the plastic buckets have recycle codes of #2, #4, or #5 and that plastic is supposed to be food grade. The buckets are new and clean. I would not put any food in them without washing them, but I suspect the plastic is safe for the chicken feed and grains I am currently storing in them.
...

For food safe to be on the label, it isn't the type of plastic that matters; more precisely, it isn't only the type of plastic that matters. It is how many and what types of impurities are in it and how well this can be documented.

PVC is commonly used for water pipes. It is inert enough for that. But when it is used to protect industrial drill bits for tooling machines, it sometimes has chucks of unidentified other materials in it that might be several inches long. It is still labeled pvc. - concept, I don't have the case here and it has been several years since I looked at it; I remember it was a plastic often used in food containers.

It is relatively inexpensive to make it look safe. It might be made the same as buckets labeled food safe or it might be made with different stabilizers or dyes that either aren't safe for all types of food or aren't certified as food safe.

I have stored things like rice, dry beans, and oatmeal in the plain buckets. I'm moving away from it as I learn more about manufacturing (from two of my sons - process engineer and managing engineer). The pails might be the same thing. And they might not. I phased colored buckets out first. They now hold ashes for dust bath, lime, tools for the garden, and such.

The few dollars it costs for a pail that will last decades, even at full price, isn't worth the risk.

 

[gtaus]

The few dollars it costs for a pail that will last decades, even at full price, isn't worth the risk.

I really can't tell if we are in disagreement, or not, about these "free" buckets I have been getting at Harbor Freight and our local Fleet store that are marked #2 HDPE. They are supposed to be food grade buckets. If I paid full price for plastic buckets elsewhere, I think they would also have the same #2 (or #4, or #5) markings. So, I don't understand why a person would pay full price for a food grade bucket at one store when you can get the same thing for "free" at a bucket sale at a tool store.

Would I use any pail or bucket for food that was unmarked? No. Because you don't have any idea what was used to make that plastic. But from my time in manufacturing years ago, these companies have to earn the certification for their products and an accepted stamp of #2 HDPE plastic has to meet those food grade standards. To me, those recycle stamps have meaning and should indicate if the plastic is food grade or not. If you are saying that we cannot trust those manufacturing recycle stamps and standards, then what do you trust?

Let me reference an article on the subject that I think is clear and helpful. It is Which Plastics are Safe for Food Storage and How to Use Them

Which Plastics are Safe for Food Storage and How to Use Them​

Written by Colton Blairin Food Storage

Keeping food and water free from harmful chemicals and toxins that can be released by certain types of plastics is often overlooked but extremely important to consider. Some plastic containers are more safe for food and water storage while other plastic containers are more harmful for our personal and environmental health. So which plastics are safe for food storage?

Which plastics are safe for food storage?​

Plastics that are safe to use as food storage containers include:

• Plastic #1: PET or PETE – (Polyethylene Terephthalate)
• Plastic #2: HDPE – (High Density Polyethylene)
• Plastic #4: LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene)
• Plastic #5: PP – (Polypropylene)

What plastics should you avoid?​

Plastics that you should avoid using as food storage containers include:

• Plastic #3: PVC – (Polyvinyl Chloride)
• Plastic #6: PS — (Polystyrene)

Other​

Plastic #7: Other – (can contain various plastics, such as Bisphenol A (BPA) )

*Numbers 1 – 7 are used to refer to the different types of plastics inside the recycling triangle diagram.

 

[gtaus]

Not to beat a dead horse, but if you take advantage of those "free" 5-gallon buckets at the bucket day sales at the tool stores, you don't have to use them for food. I have a number of 5-gallon buckets that I use to tote around tools, use as garbage pails, toss in bits and pieces of a work project, etc... Mostly, those are 5-gallon buckets I have saved from painting or maybe drywall mud. Just wash them out and use them for a tool bucket. If I don't know what the bucket was used for before, then I would not use it to store food, not even dry feed for the chickens. There are countless uses for those 5-gallon buckets.

At any rate, I hope some people will consider taking advantage of those bucket day sales and save themselves $5.00 per bucket. That's a good deal that I suspect lots of people don't know about. Those 5-gallon buckets can be useful for lots of things, and I have found it very handy to have empty buckets and lids around in my garage.