Cleaning 55-GALLON PLASTIC BARREL

[geko522]

I found a food grade 55-gallon barrel that commercial soap was stored in it. It has the symbol on the bottom that says HDPE with at 2 in the triangle. How would I clean this out and get it ready to store rodi water in it if I decided to buy the barrel. Thanks for the help! I was going to rinse and bleach, rinse and vinegar the repeatedly rise.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

What is in "commercial soap"?

“Consistently in our study, we found polyethylene [HDPE and LDPE] and polypropylene [PP] absorbed much greater concentrations of contaminants than PET or PVC..." https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/plastics-and-chemicals-they-absorb-pose-double-threat-marine-life

"during the recycling of plastic waste into new products known hazardous or unknown chemicals may be carried from the previous into the new product... [snip]...Due to the number of chemicals present in the material, up to date, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has not yet been recycled successfully in applications with food contact." https://www.foodpackagingforum.org/...tion-and-safety-of-chemicals-in-recycled-hdpe

Amazon will ship a new barrel of that sort to your door for $120, and they're $100 at HD. Not sure how much work and potential risk it might be worth to try a used one. If you think you got it clean, but then your corals aren't doing well, how would a person determine that it isn't the barrel leaching something?

 

[PapaFishRocks]

IMHO, I wouldn’t chance it. The surfactants and caustics in commercial grade soap will likely still leave residue. Even after repeated attempts at cleaning.

$120 on Amazon, for new is much less than the corals and fish it might negatively impact.