Recycling bucket and barrels

[DuppyDo]

I"ve been recycling buckets for awhile now and know that the letters HDPE with a 2 in a triangle are food grade buckets. I just got a couple barrels at a yard sale with two different type of lettering on the bottoms.Two of the blue plastic/poly barrels have PE-HO with 02 in a triangle the other two have PEHD with a 2 in the triangle.The guy i got them from said they were used to import vitamins. Does anyone know exactly what those letters mean on the bottom of the barrels, as far as safety goes. I'd like to use them for grain or food in mylar bag storage.
They have no odor at all and have a clamp type gasketed lid. Thanks....Kevin

 

[SKR8PN]

HDPE stands for High Density Polyethylene.

http://www.hdpe-plastic.com/

I came up empty on the PEHO plastic except it is a form of Polyethylene terephthalate plastic and I don't believe it to be food safe. Are you certain those are the letters?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate


PEHD is High density polyethylene and is used mostly for buckets and such.
http://www.bubblesplastic.co.za/download/hdpe_facts.doc


Here is a link that describes most all the plastic used today.
http://www.plastics.org.nz/_attachments/docs/plasticscode-7.pdf

 

[DuppyDo]

thanks SKR8PN for your reply, i'm still googling and trying to figure this out...

 

[xineohpoel]

HDPE is the same as milk jugs. You can store milk in HDPE or you may store gasoline.
HDPE does not mean food grade. What was stored in it makes it so or not. A local fabric
company ships 35% peroxide and Hydrochloric acid in HDPE.

The bottom designation is just for type of plastics for recycling purposes. I worked in a company once that made roofing materials from recycled PETE (soda bottles).

Polyethylene terephthalate-is safe unless you consider soda bottle and water bottles unsafe.


Resin ID codes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resin_identification_code