U.S. Food and Drug Administration used to call plastic a “food contact substances,” thereby implicating that plastic can contaminate your food and drink. Thus, the term “you are what you eat”. When you eat and drink food that was stored in plastic, it’s tantamount to eating plastic. Now, they call it “indirect food additives” to cleanse its name of the implication of contamination.

While plastic has remained to be ubiquitous, there is continuous debate with regards to chemicals leached to the liquid that a plastic water tank contains. The change in terms may be a semantic deception. But does the migration of chemicals from the container to the water really take place? If yes, is the government taking steps to put a stop to this?

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What’s Up with Plastic?

There is indeed a difference between water that is stored in a plastic water tank from those that you get directly from the faucet. When testing was done among plastic jugs, 8 out of 10 polycarbonate containers were found to have leached BPA of bisphenol –A into the water from .5 parts per billion to 11 parts per billion. However, this range is so small that it shows to have no significance at all in the grander scheme of things. US federal regulations for testing BPA and other chemicals have not even come anywhere near the parts per billion ranges. Even in FDA laboratories, their researchers have found that migration of these substances happen within acceptable range. But if you want to be extra careful about your safety, you may disregard containers with BPA. They are the ones with the #7 sign.

What’s Up with Steel?

This is why plastic water containers are more widely accepted and used than steel or metal. Steel, being the most commonly used of all metals, can corrode in moist atmospheres and other climate conditions. Unlike plastic, steel and other metal containers made of lead can rust and result to lead poisoning. With plastic, you won’t have any of these problems. Especially when you make sure that your water is not stored too long to prevent your water from stagnating.

The fact can never be discounted that the use of plastic is ubiquitous. It is used almost everywhere, from milk containers, food containers, to huge water tanks. This is because it is convenient, with its lightweight property and its ability to absorb high impact shock without having to break. Furthermore, it is fairly affordable. It comes in many colors, shapes and sizes, is generally safe to use and can even save lives. So with that being said, which would you choose — plastic or steel? You decide.

You may be aware that plastic tanks have become big business; they are available in a capacity of up to 16,000 gallons and during the last 10 years, they have more or less replaced tanks made from most other types of materials. These tanks are very useful for storing water and chemicals like bleaches and acids.

Why have plastic tanks become so popular, you may well wonder? The main reason would have to be due to the lighter weight in comparison to most tanks made from other materials. When you have a lighter weight, you save on cost. Transportation becomes a whole lot easier as well. There is another advantage to using a tank made from plastic – it is a lot less likely to react to any liquid that is kept in it.

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The FDA has given approval for numerous polyethylene resins to be used in the making of plastic storage tanks for water and food products. Cost is also a major plus with plastic storage tanks because a tank made from polyethylene is considerably lower in price than other tanks.

Modern plastic has made it possible for a tank’s lifespan to far exceed that of any other tank’s lifespan. You have practically nil maintenance costs when you use a tank that is made from plastic.

Polyethylene tanks are by far the most common of all and polyethylene resin of high quality makes for an extremely durable, strong, and reliable tank that will last for a long time to come. However, polyethylene is not the only type of plastic tank available; you will find tanks made from other types of plastic as well.

How will you know which type of plastic tank to choose? You will have to do some research to find out or the seller can guide you. What you should know is that there are certain chemicals that do not store all that well in a polyethylene tank. These substances fare better in tanks made of Kynar or polypropylene, both of which are readily available on the market.

Here’s what you need to know for when you choose a plastic tank. Tanks are given a rating that is based on the specific gravity of the liquid they are meant to contain. What this means is a tank that has a higher specific gravity will be more sturdily structured; the walls will be thicker and it will be designed for heavy-duty use.

Many industries including bottling companies like Coca Cola tend to throw away plastic 55 gallon drums especially when the materials that have been supplied in the containers have already served their purpose, or the containers can’t anymore deliver the quality that manufacturing companies inculcate in their work practices. Some of these 55 gallon drums usually end up filling our landfills where they will corrode so slowly for a very, very long time. The government has yet to issue certain laws mandating more appropriate disposal procedures and methods.

But as these things go on, many people from all walks of life seem to have found certain uses for these discarded 55 gallon drums. In fact, if you check online, you will find people asking where they can get some for free, or even in exchange for some fair price. 55 gallon plastic drums, after all, need not continue filling our landfills only to serve as potential hazards to our environment. There are better ways for them to be disposed of, all thanks to all these people who were resourceful and frugal enough to have applied some of their bright ideas into action.

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Some typical uses of 55 Gallon Drums:

- Due to the hard economic times, many people today are now resorting to home vegetable gardening. And in order to sustain this, they use plastic 55 gallon drums for planting the seeds and letting the vegetables grow.

- For people with bigger plots for vegetable gardens, they use the drums to collect rain water and act as huge water sprinklers as well.

- Because most of these drums used to contain harmful chemicals and materials before they were discarded, some eccentric people use these drums to breed some insects and algae. Once the drums can sustain life forms, it means that they’re already safe to use for other things.

- Majority of the consumer population who has 55 gallon drums at home use it as trash bins for lack of other ideas.

Bright Ideas Are Always Welcome

If all people are as resourceful as those first three mentioned above, our government wouldn’t be having such a hard time coming up with ways to dispose of waste materials other than by just simply bringing them to the landfills to rot and corrode. So start small, and from there, nourish the ideas that come to mind, no matter how weird it may be at first. Secondhand plastic 55 gallon drums are after all very strong, sturdy, easy to clean and can withstand a lot of external factors. They’re good for the gardens and good for the homes. If you think hard enough, more uses will eventually come to mind.

This principle does not only apply to the use of these drums, but it should be employed to other areas of your life as well. So, recycle, recycle, recycle!

Many people have used plastic storage tanks as a means of storing water. These kinds of tanks have been used for many years because of the fact that they are far better then any other styles of storage tanks.

The reason why the plastic water storage tank is so effective is because of the fact that it is very lightweight and easy to carry around and store things in. People will use plastic tanks to store anything and not just water is involved here. A plastic storage tank is often fairly easy to install and set up the way you want it to be which give it another advantage over other ways of storing water.

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A lot of problems have come up with other types of water storage because of health issues similar to using metal storage tanks. The best thing about a plastic storage tank is that it does not affect your health in a negative way at all. There are no health risks at all and people all over the globe use plastic tanks to store drinking water. This allows them to keep the water fresh and not contaminated. In places such as Africa, the people there will use plastic tanks to store rain water since drinking water is not commonly found in those areas of the world.

If you are considering purchasing a plastic water storage tank, you are going to want to pay attention to a few things. The first thing is that the color you pick for your tank is very important. A dark colored tank is a good choice because it helps prevent algae growth in the water.

The use of fiberglass is another type of water storage tanks plastic makeup that is popular for storage. This type of tank is very flexible and does a great job of storing water and has an advantage of fibers being woven into the plastic itself making it very strong and able to take the stress and pressures of being underground.

Plastic water tanks can be purchased in many stores and are available all over the world. Since they are so familiar, you should have no problem finding them at your closest Home Depot store. They are common and not too expensive; the majority of people will find that their prices are quite reasonable for their use.

If you need a way to store your drinking water then I would suggest to you that you consider buying a plastic water tank. It will be able to get the job done for you.