Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Other Sciences Question Forum => Topic started by: lord_raider on August 14, 2013, 03:40:04 AM
-
Hello,
I'm trying to clean out a sunscreen bottle but it is not that easy :).
It keeps giving a sunscreen smell.
I tried Washing soda en warm water and let it rest for 10 hours.
I tried Vinegar, Dishwasher cleaning soap ...
It keeps giving the new contents a sunscreen taste and smell.
What product or combination can dissolve or remove the sunscreen odour completely.
There has to be something chemical that neutralizes it I suppose ???
Thx for any tips or help
-
The contents of the bottle have probably leached into the plastic over time. There is unlikely anything you can do to completely remove it.
-
That was also what I was fearing :).
The annoying thing is the new contents absorbs it from the plastic again.
It is indeed an 4 year old bottle.
-
Also, you mentioned "taste", which implies you intend to use a bottle that previously held an external product for internal use. You shouldn't do that. The grades of plastic used for food use are different for other product use. Even if you caught one of these sunscreen bottles before the assembly line filled it with sunscreen, you would likely still find liquids stored in it tainted with something extracted from the plastic wall.
-
As the above poster mentioned, fragrances and other substances from the contents bottle have likely been scalped by the plastic. The only thing you can do is try to reverse the process. If it's really important, I would fill the bottle with a suitable matrix - probably something nonpolar like vegetable or mineral oil - and let it sit in a warmish place for a few days or up to a week. Some of the whatever partitioned into the plastic should partition back into the oil. You can repeat this with vinegar, vodka (or other neutral spirit) and water (separately) to cover all your bases. You may never get totally rid of the scent if the bottle was four years old but this procedure will likely help to some degree.
(Without knowing what was scalped, it's hard to guess the best matrix to use. But most likely the bottle is polyethylene or something which means the migrant is probably something reasonably nonpolar, which is why I suggest either an oil or high % ethanol as a matrix.)
It does, as Arkcon mentions, beg the question of why you're using a sunscreen bottle to store something you're consuming orally. Sure you can find other containers for your food...
-
what are we talking here? cleaning a highly contaminated plastic ,doted with adsorbed materials definitively not meant for food use, to food-use standards ?
come on people....
if there is no very very veeeeeery special reason to do so: this is completely futile, a waster of time and money, and by no means sustainable
a plastic bottle sunscreen size goes at 10 cnt-US , if that much...
regards
Ingo
-
Well, like other threads in the ... other category, this thread provides us with a chance to talk about these sorts of objections, which many noobs don't seem aware of. So practicality aside, its a useful thing for people to learn. If you search the forum on the topic of "washing out", you'll see lots of people are trying to reuse a variety of containers ... mostly pointlessly.
-
(...) this thread provides us with a chance to talk about these sorts of objections,(...)
nullum esse librum tam malum...
(Pliny the Younger, Epistles 3.)
yeah, I see your point
just felt that somebody should raise a voice of reason in this topic, nevertheless
regards
Ingo
-
We are talking about equilibrium of distribution between the solid phase of the plastic and a liquid to "wash" it.
You could wash it 1000 times, even if the plastic were a finely divided powder, and still the contamination could remain. How could you tell if it was a success?
Put it this way, if a bottle contained a known carcinogen would you risk re-using it after cleaning for your toddlers milk?
I agree with Ingo, best throw it out and buy a clean bottle.