Reusing Glass and Plastic Bottles for Food and Water Storage

Should you reuse glass and plastic bottles for food and water storage? Well, that depends on a few factors.  

First off, we should accept the fact that there is no perfect answer. What works for me may not work for you. That's pretty much the case with everything related to food storage. But there are good, better, and best options, and education can help us make the best decisions for our situation.  

I tend to believe that glass is best for long term food storage. If I could be assured that none of my food would be lost due to glass breaking in an earthquake, I'd store a whole lot more in glass. But it would be a monumental task to store all the grains and beans and such for a large family in glass bottles. And so we also use a lot of plastic, especially plastic buckets.  

There are very few options for reusing glass bottles. Basically, there are a few brands of juice that still come in glass bottles, as well as spaghetti sauce and pickles, but there's not much beyond that. However, if you are careful about removing the lids, they can be cleaned and boiled and then reused for vacuum sealing. Glass is best for storing oil for long term storage.  

However, commercial producers are using ever-increasing amounts of plastic now, so that's what we have to work with. But all plastics are not created equal, and some choices are better than others when it comes to reusing them for food and water storage. 

PETE bottles are indicated by the 1 in the recycling triangle at the bottom of packages. This is polyethylene terephthalate. Most commonly used for soda and juice bottles, PETE containers are also used for ketchup, water, and peanut butter. The lid goes back on and seals securely enough to be airtight so that oxygen absorbers can also be used to preserve food better. These containers work well for whole grains, dry beans, rice, and small pasta shapes. Unfortunately, they are still a bit permeable. That's why soda goes flat in them over time. Anything with the potential to become rancid in storage, like rolled oats, oil, or nuts, will begin doing so within two to three years. So PETE containers shouldn't be used for truly long-term food storage. PETE is also a rather thin plastic, another reason it's less desirable for long-term food storage, but even then PETE bottles are pretty much insect and rodent proof.

HDPE, high-density polyethylene, is indicated by the 2 in the recycling triangle. Unfortunately, most HDPE is recycled, so the HDPE symbol alone is not sufficient to determine whether the plastic is food grade. You also need to look for some other indication, like the words food grade or food safe, or the fork and cup symbol near the recycling symbol to show that it is, in fact, food-grade. HDPE plastics are often used for large food grade buckets as well as milk, juice, yogurt, and margarine containers.  

LDPE, low-density polyethylene, is designated by the number 4 in the recycling triangle. It is more flexible and often used for plastic wraps and bread bags. It is used in manufacturing the bottles for some cooking oils. 

PP, polypropylene, is designated by the number 5 in the recycling triangle. A more rigid plastic used to manufacture food grade buckets, it is also used to make syrup, yogurt, margarine, and deli soup containers. 

All of the above plastics are deemed safe for reuse for food. However, all may leach chemicals if they are heated, and none should be reused if they didn't hold food in the first place. Also, milk jugs should never be reused for food or water storage purposes. They break too easily. Furthermore, never use biodegradable plastics for long term storage. They're designed to break down over time.  

A study conducted at BYU nearly ten years ago compared the shelf-life of sunflower and canola oils stored in LDPE and PETE bottles. The results showed that the shelf-life of both of these oils was much longer in PETE bottles. Canola oil in PETE bottles had a shelf life of 6.8 years, as opposed to 2.7 years in LDPE bottles. Sunflower oil in PETE bottles had a shelf life of 2.6 years, as opposed to 0.88 years for LDPE bottles. So if you buy your oils in LDPE bottles, you should seriously consider repackaging them in glass or PETE bottles for longer storage.

For further reading:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3798&context=etd
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1089&context=facpub
https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information-center/packing-your-own-food-storage/using-food-storage-buckets-and-containers
https://oureverydaylife.com/which-plastics-are-safe-to-reuse-4900426.html
https://www.newstarget.com/2019-08-29-how-long-can-you-store-water-in-plastic-containers.html
https://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Food-Grade-Buckets

 10.31.19