Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I thought I saw a thread about rubbermaid stock containers, bpa, and pthalates but I can't seem to find it here.

If this helps anyone, I wrote to Rubbermaid about bpa and plasticizers and this is the response:

There are no phthalates or other plasticizer types used in the stock tanks.

Thank you,

Kimberly
CSCentral and CSWest Correspondence
Rubbermaid Commercial Product - A Newell Rubbermaid Company
cscentral@rubbermaidcommercial.com
cswest@rubbermaidcommercial.com
3124 Valley Avenue
Winchester, VA 22601

I was researching because I had heard mixed messages on the stock tanks but after this, I feel a little safer using the Rubbermaid stock tanks.

Lots of US members use Rubbermaid tanks...

You're more likely to have problems with BPA & pthalates... eating canned food... or baby food....

I have seen that but I haven't seen any evidence they are actually bpa and pthalate free.


In the US (not sure about other countries) it is almost impossible to become BPA and pthalate free.. EVERYTHING uses plastic and a lot of it still has bpa. I just checked my water bottle.. yup.. bpa sigh. Anything I can do to try to move toward not poisoning myself or family, I sure am going to try.

I would have thought the response from Rubbermaid.. was pretty specific...

It was pretty specific which helped me make my decision. Before Rubbermaid sent their response, I had only found statements such as "the FDA has not authorized this container as food grade" and "not intended for anything except livestock watering tank".. so I was quite happy to learn that it is in fact, bpa and pthalate free.

Things registered as safe for potable water will say "NSF-61" somewhere in the specs (in the U.S.). Rubbermaid may not have done so with their stock tanks because it costs money and it is not necessary to go to that expense for horse watering tubs, and/or that they may use recycled plastic in their tubs that maybe would disqualify them? I use the TuffStuff stock tanks and those are softer plastic, which may mean those do have "plasticizers" in them.

The TuffStuff are LDPE which seems to be a better plastic?? The Rubbermaid tanks are HDPE.
After much searching, I only get some consistency that plastic types 3,6,and 7 are not good at all.


Safe(r)??:
#1 - PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate)
#2 - HDPE (high-density polyethylene)
#4 - LDPE (low-density polyethylene)
#5 - PP (polypropylene)

Unsafe:
#3 - PVC (polyvinyl chloride)
#6 - PS (polystyrene)
#7 - "Other" or Type O

Found on:
thedailygreen.com/going-green/tips/plastic-recycling-codes-tip

But on this site (glutathionediseasecure.com/safe-plastics.html) they seem to hate all plastics...

We discuss tanks but then... we hook up our PVC pipes.. lol

Polyethylene is about as safe as it gets. IBCs are made from it, as are most water tanks. It is nothing to be afraid of. Polycarbonate is where the bpas come from. That is too bad because it is STRONG. We use polystyrene in our systems all the time. It is used for rafts. People have been going in circles about PVC here.

The strength of our system is in the weakest part right?