Concerned about plastic smell. Should I be?

[gardening_gal]

I got some cheap black buckets with handles from Poundland. They are a good size for growing single plants like bush toms etc.

Anyway, the plastic has a very strong smell of, actually I don't know what the smell is, I'm hoping you will just know what I mean. Sometimes black refuse sacks have the same smell.

I washed the buckets and the smell lessened but it is definitely still there. I'm now questioning if it's wise to use these for food type plants?

I can deal with the smell, I'm concerned about nasties leeching out of the plastic since it smells so bad.

[Bill HH]

All I can say is that it wouldn't bother me a tinkers cuss. We grow so much in plastic nowadays if it was toxic we would all be dead. If the smell is that worrying wash em again and stand them outside for a day or two to air.

[Kristen]

I think the plasticisers (which is what I assume the smell is) are an issue - they are hydrocarbon based, and there are plenty of allergies to those ... so, for example, I fret about whether the plastic sheet which separates the wooden boards around my raised beds from the soil leaches plasticisers ... which then get absorbed by root crops.

Of course there is risk in everything we do, even lying in bed!, but I try to mitigate the ones that I can.

[BertieFox]

Any danger from 'nasties' in the plastic impregnating the compost, and then the plant, is so infinitesimal that you should be far more worried about all the other preserved foods you eat. It is now well established that most canned goods are lined with plastics which can migrate certain chemicals into the contents, as well as plastic containers and bottles which affect what is inside.

I must admit, that without being a 'crank', I am increasingly buying things which are bottled in glass (even beans) in preference to things in cans. I notice our local supermarket is now selling baked beans in cardboard packages rather like milk cartons, though this may be as much to do with economies as with health.

The main thing to avoid in your garden and pots is anything which has been combusted, especially ashes from stoves and fires, as these can contain high levels of dioxins which DO find their way into plants, and are highly carcinogenic and toxic.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I would suggest the smell is left over from the manufacturing process, after all buckets are stacked one inside the other and therefore the odour would remain trapped between the two layers.

Like Bill I would not worry over much a bucket will be made of a polymer that is stable to all sorts of things otherwise it would melt if the wrong stuff was put in it.

The problem we face is the immense variety of polymers in use today from Polystyrene to Polyamide aka nylon.

[Penellype]

I recently bought a new kettle, which smelt horribly of plastic and made the water taste foul. Some research on the internet placed the blame on the lubricant that they use on the surface of the plastic so that they can get the object out of the mould. The solution was to boil a few kettles full of water with bicarbonate of soda in it and this did remove the smell and taste.

Obviously you can't boil a bucket, but maybe some hot water with sodium bicarbonate in it might help.