Does anyone recycle these? Are they recyclable? If not, what would be the best place to get used ones?
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Ask painters and drywallers. Generally they just dumpster the empties.
-- J.S.
Best place to get used ones is at a development, or an office building, where they're doing a lot of sheetrock.
I've seen dozens of buckets thrown in dumpsters.
But always ask permission first before taking anything. Most GCs won't have a problem.
I don't know if they're recyclable. But there should be a stamp on the bottom saying what kind of plastic it is. Then you can find out locally if they accept it.
The buckets have a recycle stamp on the bottom, can't remember which number. Our landfill doesn't want them in their recycle area, though. They don't want larger items like that, they only want the milk jug sized containers so the buckets end up in the landfill.
When I had my sheep farm, I used to get nice green pails out of the dumpster behind MacDonalds and Burger King, and white ones at Dunkin Donuts...
and you can grow tomatoes upside down in them when in a hanging postion
for apartment dwellers low on garden space.
be a tip from MotherEarthNews:o)
Edited 7/7/2008 1:43 pm ET by rez
be just hanging around...
a tough way to garden.
Those buckets are tough.
Bet you could equally distribute the weight of a 20ft dome on a ring of those buckets and it would support it.
be a foundation on sandy soil
Ever see somebody duct tape a pair on their feet and clomp around like stilts?
Wasn't me, but I have seen it done.
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
I call these my 'hushbuckets' :
View Image
Oh I forgot about that. I used to strap 'em to my feet and use them for stilts to tape drywall. You feel like Herman Munster but they work! It's not a good scene when you trip and go down however, you can really turn your ankle on those.to old for that now but there was a time...
How's the traction in those things?
OK on Advantech?
Looks like you cheated and used PL rather than the specified duct tape!
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Piffin screws through the soles of the shoes, and into the bottoms of the buckets.
Equal opportunity knicker knotter
Click here for access to the Woodshed Tavern
Traction is good, haven't tried them on advantech. Top speed is only about 12 mph.
Luka is right, Piffin screws. Didn't have PL when those were born.
Anybody know of a typical source of the larger ie. 7-gallon buckets?
I sell my buckets . I get a lot of them. I get a dollar a piece and they go like hot cakes. I use them a lot and milk crates too. But how would you hang a tomato plant upside down in one ? For some reason my mind wont wrap on that .
What kind of tomatos ?
Tim
Any kind will work pretty well. You cut a hole in the bottom just big enough to get the roots of your tomato plant in, with the green part hanging down. A little burlap to hold the plant in from falling back out, and fill the bucket with dirt. Hang from something sturdy, and water well.http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/tomato2.html
Thanks .
You cut a 2" hole in the bottom and on in the top of the lid. Spread the bottom with a fiber mesh so the dirt doesn't fall out, slit a hole in the mesh where the 2" hole is, hang your bucket, insert your plant upside down, fill the bucket with potters soil and put your lid on. Voila!
I have one going right now as a matter of fact in a 2.5 gallon bucket and it's growing like a house a fire. I stuck a drooping vine through the top hole and that's growing wild now too. You let gravity do the work, all the water & nutrients naturally flow down. Hang it about 4' above the deck so when it's mature the tomatoes have someplace to set themselves easily and bask in the sun.Works!
http://www.minifarmhomestead.com/gardening/tomato.htm
Thanks
Another source for similar buckets is industrial motor rewind shops - the copper wire they use to rewind motors usually comes in a similar bucket, on a reel, and if they do any volume, they often have quite a few to get rid of - make a friend there, and you can often get them when they're available.
regular tomatoes. Punch holes in the bottom and plant them going down. Supposed to be the best thing since ... sliced tomatoes. That way no tomatoes lying on the ground I think is the idea.
I've actually seen a system like that in a gardener's catalog. Supposed to be a great way to grow tomatoes and help with unwanted pests.
Can you share how to do this with a bucket?
Container plants was what i was thinking. Have a number of yellow and grape 'maters and pepper plants in large pots by the garage and alley. Aesthetics isn't really an issue back there.
Occasionally have to move them around though and it's getting old. Made the mistake of getting a couple large cheap plastic storage containers and drilling holes in them. When filled with wet dirt you have to use a dolly to move them. But 5-gallon buckets would be perfect.
My firm is on a big recycle/reuse campaign so i thought i'd see if anyone else might be interested. Get some more people involved, then go collecting, clean them out, drill some holes and give them away. Just wasn't sure if there were any availability issues out there.
Whatever you use for container gardening, put a few inches of those annoying styrofoam pellets (I call them "styros") in the bottom - not only does it make them easier to move & enhances the drainage, it takes less soil .
donuts shops used to be the best for 2, 3 and 5 gal buckets.
haven't tried in a while to see if they're still giving them away.
also used to get a nice collection while working around a bar/restraunt.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
That was another consideration. Some other suggestions here have mirrored that as well.
I worked at a BK during high school (a million years ago) and remember the big green buckets. That was before recycling though. Wasn't sure if something had changed between now and then.
So do you clean your buckets right away, or put it off until 'later'?
seems I got a bunch of dirty buckets..
Depends .
On the job they are cleaned every day . Its a lot easiar .
At the time I was bucket-hunting, I particularly wanted food-grade pails, because I didn't want to poison the sheep. I wouldn't hesitate to use joint-compound pails for animals or plants, but I might be wary of buckets that had held unknown substances.
The green pails smelled strongly of dill pickle!
I also have some very useful 2 gallon green pails that came with horse wormer. I got those as a bonus when I was collecting horse feed bags for packaging broken plaster. If I didn't put too much in each package, & disguised it a bit, the trash collection guys would take my demolition waste - priceless!
Edited 7/7/2008 6:45 pm ET by kate
Only on BT...31 posts about empty pails, & they all (except this one) contain useful information...we are the greatest! BT is the best!
Here's another use for them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAyWnVq-hlQ&feature=related''Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.'' Plato
He is just knocking the old plaster out of them.;-)
Check out http://www.StopWaste.Org. Go to "Buckets & Drums-Recycle". You can email one of the recyclers and ask if they know of a place near you. I'm sure there is a place.
if you find one in a dumpster with the lid snapped on hold yer breath when you open it and expect the worst.
Wise advice right there!!!
Seemingly empty bucket with the lid on tight, leave it be!!!
"if you find one in a dumpster with the lid snapped on hold yer breath when you open it and expect the worst."
So avoid the ones at the New Jersey dockyards? :)
Check out some food producers in your area. My father works for one of the very large national ice cream companies and they have about 50 buckets a week that are sent to a recycling company. Any employee can take as many as they want. All the buckets had ingredients for the ice cream, orange sherbert flavoring, strawberry mix, cherry mix, etc. I just like the ease to my mind that they were food buckets rather than having some chemical and worrying about whether remnants could affect my car paint when washing cars, or react with something else, etc.I'm sure you have some large food companies or colleges, etc. who get various foods in them. good luck
I think out of courtesy people should take a marker and write "DANGER"
or "DO NOT OPEN" on the bucket if it has been used as a Porta Potty
Good advice to leave the lid on. I disposed of a skunk by pushing the carcass into a used paint bucket and snapping on the lid. I felt sorry for the guy at the dump that pulled the lid off to let the leftover paint evaporate. Hot day too.
Try fast food restaurants. Most of them use pickles and they come in 5 gal. buckets.
I recycle them all the time.
One for plumbing tools, one for electrical tools, one for plumbing fittings, one for cedar shims, car wash bucket (only gets used once a year or so)...............you get the idea.
I've even got a couple of those fancy cloth bucket organizer thingys with all the pockets.
Amazingly, I have a few which actually contain paint or joint compound like their labels say!
Oh, you meant to "recycle" not "reuse".
In that case, most of mine are either #5 PP (polypropylene) or #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene), so the answer is yes - they are recyclable, whether your local recycling center will take them is another matter - mine will not - probably because of the metal bails.
They used to call me "dirt cheap", now they call me "environmentally sensitive". :)
Jim
Clean 5-gallon buckets are good for blending gallons of different tints of paint so the color-batch is consistant.
Used ones make great places to store old and new coiled band saw blades, especially ones for those 16", 18" and 20" models. One for old but good blades and one for new blades. Mark them on the outside or on the underside of the bottm with black Magic Marker and then hang them on a nail so they're up and out of the way.
They blow out of open bed pickups real easy... Just keep your eyes peeled to the highway medians, and I'll bet you'll find 2 a month..
In one of those tool catologues, you can buy a padded top that snaps over the 5-gallon bucket's lip. You've got a great handle so you can take it or carry it about anywhere. Good for storing portable tools, fishing gear, or materials and that special padded lid provides a soft place to sit for a spell...
Like a young kid said, "Sometimes I sits and thinks and Sometimes I just sits."
;>) Bill
My son bolted an old riding mower seat to a bucket and instant seat for working on his motorcycle. He works at a pool supply place and they have lots of chemicals in buckets. Wash them out before using.
I have dumped excess concrete, mortar, grout in them and out comes nice round stepping stones.
How about cutting the bottom out and using them in place of sonotubes? Or like mentioned above support a dome with them.
Grocery stores that bake and have deli. I cut them down and store all manner of hardware.
larry b
I can't believe that HD actually tries to sell them. Export them to us in Wisconsin. There must be thousands of them on the ice every winter. No better seat and fish storage around.
i get mine for $1 each from a hamburger place
pickles come in them originally
nice and clean when I get them
"Never pick a fight with an old man. If he can't beat you he will just kill you." Steinbeck
Please take note that on large jobs (ie.) condo projects, we also use them as #@#$*@ cans, read camode, BE CAREFUL.
We have five cats in the house and five liter boxes. Go through about 3 five gal buckets from Sam's each month. I use them in the van, after I max out will probably cut them down to about 12" high containers to put on shelves with junk in them.
They are #2 recycle which our county trash takes.
They do stack in small area and are very space efficient since the are square base, not round. Not really strong enough to stand on though. Okay with board across two but will crush with 190# on one if not upside down.
shtrum
Our local industy, Wells Dairy recycles them by the thousands.
Alot of there flavor concentrates come in 5 gal buckets.
We can buy them for 25 cent each.
The garbage guys pick them up and steam clean them before they are sent back somewhere. We can buy them from the garabage guys.
Rich
Just don't recycle 'em by using them as ladders.
Liquid band helps when I do dumb stuff like that. Glad it was invented.
What goes up must come down unless it gets into a stable orbit.
"Does anyone recycle these?"
They are great for pyrotechnics