Is it safe to store drinking water in new Plastic trash cans (Home Depot), or are they coated/impregnated with pesticide?

-- guzzle (drink@ing.wat), December 05, 1999

Answers

If you don't know......

But seriously, if you look closely many trash can liners state food grade quality which means you can safely store water in them. Just line the can with the liner, add water, bingo. In that there is always some level of gas permiability I'ld stay away from the treated cans even if I was lining them with food grade plastic. If you don't know if the cans is treated, that's a good arguement for double lining with two or three sacks before adding water.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), December 05, 1999.

Do not store water in trash cans. They are generally not food grade plastic which means chemicals can leech out of the material. Not a good move. The large plastic liner bags are not food grade either (I have some that are but these were special ordered from U.S. Plastics).

Though on gravity fed spring water here I do have 2 50 gallon plastic drums filled with water set aside. These came from the local Pepsi bottling plant via a recycler who picks them up from them each week. Nice thick plastic, definitly food grade, lids have 1/2" pipe thread ports as well as large and small screw on caps. Cost was $10 each.

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), December 05, 1999.

Plastic Trash cans are not coated or "impregnated" with pesticides.

if they were, you would expect to pay MORE for them AND it would definitely be touted as a FEATURE

However, the previous comments about plasticizers leaking out are probably true, but more likely, you would find that the trash cans are coated with a very thin film of Mold Release. "Food Grade" plastic containers don't have any mold release on them.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 05, 1999.