Reusing chemical bottles for food

2F/2F · Sep 15, 2011

I don't get it. Since you are obviously set in your decision, why even ask us the question? The answer is near unanimously against your idea, yet you seem to have known exactly what you were going to do from the start. What a waste of everyone's time trying to talk some common sense into you!

Nothing against Grolsch bottles for your brew. But why those particular FOUR bottles? Go buy some more beer! Get drunk! And/or get your friends drunk! Save the bottles! Or not. Knock yourself out with your plan. I am sure you will live, but it is completely nonsensical. This thread was just silly to start, but now it is pointless.

Bob-D659 · Sep 15, 2011

Washing and sterilizing is NOT going to easily remove silver deposits. Unless you give them at least a nice 24 hour soak in muriatic acid available at your local homedespot.

2F/2F · Sep 15, 2011

Bob-D659 said:
Washing and sterilizing is NOT going to easily remove silver deposits. Unless you give them at least a nice 24 hour soak in muriatic acid available at your local homedespot.

...and spend as much on a bottle of acid as you will spend on a brand new 4 pack of Grolsch! And have to have the stuff sitting around in your house in a vat as you soak the bottles...and have to go buy new gaskets for the bottles...and put a bottle of hydrochloric acid into the sewer unnecessarily. It is utter nonsense. I cannot believe the response of the OP. This really needs to go to the Soap Box IMNSHO.

Monito · Sep 15, 2011

BetterSense said:
After I put a new gasket on them, I'm sure any leftover fixer will be long gone, or reduced to ppm levels, by that point.

Are you capable of reading English and comprehending it? You have been told several times in this thread that there will be no leftover fixer and that is not the issue! There are several other issues, including silver deposits on the walls of the bottles and whether or not you want to keep your friends. Yet you completely ignore all of them and respond to your chosen issue.

You came here ostensibly to get advice, but the real result is that you are here to prove to everyone that you are so smart and know better than 97% of the respondents to this thread who have strongly counselled you to abandon your idea and given excellent reasons.

Read, comprehend, recycle the glass. This is not a case for re-use.

Sirius Glass · Sep 15, 2011

I do not know about the rest of you, but to me this thread is like have having a logical discussion with my ex-wife! :eek:

removed account4 · Sep 15, 2011

make sure you have some of these to label your bottles
so at least you know which ones contain the mickey finn

http://www.google.com/search?q=skul...RMLSEsgKL8szwCQ&ved=0CDoQsAQ&biw=1148&bih=940

yeknom02 · Sep 15, 2011

It seems that the original issue is long since resolved by now.

As a side note, I'm wondering what the effect of recycling would be, since it was brought up as the best option. Assuming that you would recycle the glass bottles, I'm wondering if (a) they are able remove deposits from the glass and (b) what effect that will have on future generations of recycled glass material. Needless to say, I'm pretty ignorant of what goes on after I place my recyclables in the bin. (But at least I try to do that much!)

Monito · Sep 15, 2011

yeknom02 said:
I'm wondering what the effect of recycling would be, since it was brought up as the best option. Assuming that you would recycle the glass bottles, I'm wondering if (a) they are able remove deposits from the glass and (b) what effect that will have on future generations of recycled glass material. Needless to say, I'm pretty ignorant of what goes on after I place my recyclables in the bin. (But at least I try to do that much!)

When the glass is melted, any silver deposits would come to the top of the melt as dross and be skimmed off, or sink to the bottom and remain there with other heavy melted sludge and not be drawn off for use in glass objects. Any silver atoms that remained in the body of the melt would be dispersed so widely that they would end up inside the body of any glass objects. The quantity of silver available at the surface of any resulting finished glass would be measured in parts per billion or (more likely) in parts per trillion, if it were measurable at all.

Usagi · Sep 15, 2011

I wonder.. Here where i live, glass and pet bottles recycled. Now petbottles are crunched and the plastic is used to manufacture lower quality (not sure) plastic.
Glass beer bottles etc. Are still reused.

So how bottles are cleaned? Nobody knows how bottle is used before someone returns it...for glass bottles there are more effective cleaning methods than for pet bottles. I guess.

But how did/does beer and other drink factories check whether one bottle contains some poisonous chemical?

Worker 11811 · Sep 15, 2011

In the old days when glass bottles were returnable, they were washed in hot water and caustic soda then steam cleaned before they were refilled and sent out again.

They still make bottle sanitizing machines: http://www.sidel.com/Your-Markets/Water/Returnable-glass-line/Washer/AQUA

ic-racer · Sep 15, 2011

I do not disagree with PE. However if we look at magnitude of injury to your body, the EtOH in the beer would be the most dangerous to your health by orders of magnitude.

So I say go ahead and do it.

ic-racer · Sep 15, 2011

The guidelines for our community recycle program advise against recycling bottles that have been in contact with chemicals.

kevs · Sep 15, 2011

All,

If the OP wants to re-use his Grolsch bottles, despite our warnings, who are we to stop him? Enjoy your beer, BetterSense, and since you obviously know better, don't complain to us when your beer is tainted with silver deposits. :-@

Scheimpflug · Sep 16, 2011

Worker 11811 said:
In the old days when glass bottles were returnable, they were washed in hot water and caustic soda then steam cleaned before they were refilled and sent out again.

They still make bottle sanitizing machines: http://www.sidel.com/Your-Markets/Water/Returnable-glass-line/Washer/AQUA

The Coke I buy at the store a few miles down the road comes in reused glass bottles. It's pretty interesting - the bottles are all different ages, different logos, different shapes, different levels of wear, etc. I don't think the bottles are "returnable" in that sense in the USA, but the USA seems to have no problem importing products in bottles returned in Mexico.

If you're concerned about the bottles being reused as-is without being melted down first, a simple solution would be to break them before recycling the glass.

Scheimpflug · Sep 16, 2011

ic-racer said:
The guidelines for our community recycle program advise against recycling bottles that have been in contact with chemicals.

Perhaps for the safety of the workers who have to sort & process those bottles?

Usagi · Sep 16, 2011

ic-racer said:
The guidelines for our community recycle program advise against recycling bottles that have been in contact with chemicals.

Here (Finland) it is actually illegal to use any container that is similar that one used for food or drink for storing chemicals. The reason is that someone could accidentally drink chemical as the container looks familiar - like coke bottle..

Despite of that, a lot of people use PET bottles (lemonade, soda) for storing chemicals. Including me, because those bottles are easy to get and they're flexible enough for squeezing all air off.

I would not return these bottles for recycling, even though they're crushed and melted.

But you never know what is kept in the glass bottles that are returned for reuse. Or what was kept on the PET bottles when they were still returned for reuse instead of crushing.
Someone could return a bottles used for storing gasoline, rat poison or some other toxic stuff..

2F/2F · Sep 16, 2011

Hey, do you play a musical instrument that uses a strap? Check this link out: http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/stap-lock-free-with-every-beer/.

Ronald Moravec · Sep 17, 2011

Neal said:
Dear BetterSense,

My brain tells me you should have no problem. My gut tells me bottles are cheap enough to just get new ones. I have nothing really to stand on here, but I wouldn't re-use them.

Neal Wydra

Funny what some will do to try to save a few pennies and risk a problem.

I doubt you will get sick if you get all the heavy metals outs, but more likely foul the beer you worked so hard on to perfect.

cmacd123 · Sep 17, 2011

Usagi said:
But you never know what is kept in the glass bottles that are returned for reuse. Or what was kept on the PET bottles when they were still returned for reuse instead of crushing.
Someone could return a bottles used for storing gasoline, rat poison or some other toxic stuff..

That is the reason given here when they switched from reusable plastic milk bottles to selling Milk in bags. The bags are made from Virgin plastic and where they are recycled they are used for "other products'.

Beer bottles are washed in a railcar sized machine called a "soaker" and at that the brewery has both machines and workers looking for cigarette buts and rodents in the fill line. I remember geting atour where the supervisor was showing a photocell that caught something in a bottle, he put the rejected bottle back on teh line and it WENT THROUGH!, he grabbed it and ran it two or three times before the photocell kicked it out for rewashing.

Photo Engineer · Sep 17, 2011

I have heard of reused coke bottles with a cigar or a rodent in them. IDK how a rodent got into a bottle through the narrow opening, but the person who found it told me it was in a few pieces. Both instances were outside of the US.

PE

CRhymer · Sep 17, 2011

Ron, in Canada this is a cottage industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsgVspgy184

Few people know that Bob and Doug made the emulsion for the last Azo run for Kodak Canada.

Cheers,
Clarence

Photo Engineer · Sep 18, 2011

Clarence;

That ruined my lunches, all the way to the end of October. Kapish? Hahahaha.

Ron

CRhymer · Sep 18, 2011

Capito! eh.

Photo Engineer · Sep 18, 2011

I just had lunch and I feel fine. See you soon Clarence!

PE

Reusing chemical bottles for food

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