# Used Buckets for Storage



## Deepsouth (Feb 6, 2013)

Any opinion on using used food grade buckets for storage. I figure if they're washed out well they should be good to go. What say you?


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Sure. I get mine from a big box store. Had frostin in some, some sorta dough in the other. Generally get em fer free an lots a times with the lids ta boot.

I've gotten em from a fast food place, had pickles in em. Them be a bit harder ta clean out the smell.

Also got a pickup load from a local pizza joint. Had cookin oil in some an a glaze a some sort in the others.

Just be sure the buckets ain't been used fer storin sumtin dangerous. Safe places generally be the food comapanies. I wouldn't take any from say a construction place cause ya don't know what's been in em.


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

***** IF ******* ..... the used buckets are food grade and NOT re-used for some other purpose in between .... you don't want a former mayo bucket that gets re-used as a floor cleaning slop bucket for a few months .....

be real careful buying buckets from a third party broker .... those guys say everything is food grade .... they don't give a rat's azz if they kill an entire family .....


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

I have no new buckets. Every one of mine came from a Chinese restaurant. They get soy sauce in them. Cleaning the soy residue out takes some doing but hey, they were free; all 50-60 of them.


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## PackerBacker (Dec 13, 2012)

IlliniWarrior said:


> ***** IF ******* ..... the used buckets are food grade and NOT re-used for some other purpose in between .... you don't want a former mayo bucket that gets re-used as a floor cleaning slop bucket for a few months .....
> 
> be real careful buying buckets from a third party broker .... those guys say everything is food grade .... they don't give a rat's azz if they kill an entire family .....


:laugh:

My buckets are all used. Previously held pharmacutical grade salts.

My buddy bring them to me 100 at a time.


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## AKPrepper (Mar 18, 2011)

I too get 'em for free from my local supermarkets. They've had everything in them from icing to dough, to pickles. Like Old Coot says, the smell is the hardest thing to get rid of. I also use mylar bags and oxygen absorbers to store my food stuff in before I put it in the buckets. It's just another extra layer to protect the food.


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

AKPrepper said:


> I too get 'em for free from my local supermarkets. They've had everything in them from icing to dough, to pickles. Like Old Coot says, the smell is the hardest thing to get rid of. I also use mylar bags and oxygen absorbers to store my food stuff in before I put it in the buckets. It's just another extra layer to protect the food.


couple of things .....

food that is LTS packed using the food grade bucket/mylar bags/02 absorbers are actually "breathing" ..... they are absorbing air thru infiltration of the various layers back into your stored food .... basically, it's nature correcting the vacuum you created using the 02 absorbers .... you can taint your food by any residue left on the buckets or even thru the environmental air surrounding the storage area ..... not uncommon to have pickle smelling flour .... some people stored next to petro chems, pesticides, fuel oil ect ect have uneatable & contaminated foods .....

the mylar bag isn't a liner to protect the food from direct contact with the bucket .... you always need a food grade bucket .... it's probably the biggest misconception about LTS food packing there is .... the mylar bag gives almost as much protection against, air infiltration, as the thick plastic bucket wall .... it's the mylar + bucket that gives the long term storage longevity ....


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Instead of reusing buckets that you dont know whats been in it, by new buckets and gamma seal lid. You can get them from various sources but i get mine from CHEAPER THAN DIRT, and they work great. camo2460


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## CapnJack (Jul 20, 2012)

That's what I do. $.50 a pop from my local grocer. Lids have the seals and everything, and usually cleaned out inside, too, (though I do clean them myself anyway). They held icings and sticky bun dough, ect.


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