General waste bin or glass recycle bin or neither?
I have some decade old, gruesome tall thin glasses infested with mold and food residue, cloaked in a grotesque and sticky film of decaying death that… are in no easy way to clean. What to do with them?
I think it might be dangerous to workers when put in the general waste.
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A note on alcohol as a cleaner:
~~Alcohol is actually a more potent solvent when in solution with water. 70% isopropyl alcohol is so prevalent because it’s actually more effective than higher concentrations. ~~
Idk how true that is, it’ll be highly dependent on what you’re trying to dissolve.
This sounds to me more like the advice I’ve heard for using isopropyl for sterilizing equipment and surfaces, its more to do with how quickly the pure stuff evaporates. Evaporate too quickly and it doesn’t sterilize, whereas 70% is best of both worlds.
Furthermore, for sterilization 70% is more effective because the other 30% is water, which helps ensure everything is exposed to isoprop for long enough and bacterial cells take in the isoprop and die (because water passes through the cell membrane, taking isoprop into the cell with it), rather than ‘hunkering down’ and surviving until the solvent is gone
However for cleaning electronics, the water content is bad because it does not dry quickly and can cause corrosion, so 99% is needed
So the percentages have varying uses and should be chosen based on the task at hand
Hmm, I think you’re right about sterilization vs gunk removal. Got those mixed up.
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This does not apply to electronics. You want that 99% to leave as little moisture as possible.
As a lazy fuck who has let his dishes get gross and moldy more than once, i doubt these glasses are too gross to clean.
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Hot water + degreaser. Soak overnight. Rinse.
Glassware is frequently not recyclable, due to additives during the manufacturing process.
What about the glass jars that are sold with food inside?
Container glass is usually fine. Sometimes dyed glass won’t be accepted or will need to be sorted though.
my bong has a bunch of crevices/nooks that get gunked up with resin n’ such. Put in some salt, a healthy splash of alcohol, and shake it up! you’ll be surprised how much that gets.
Size depending, an ultrasonic cleaner and alcohol will do the trick. That’s how I clean my glass pipes from resin and debris, and it always comes out spotless with no manual cleaning effort.
I have this little glass condenser tube that is a pain in the ass to clean. I have not thought about getting an ultrasonic cleaner. Do your pipes lay horizontally in your ultrasonic cleaner or stand vertically?
I put the pipe into a baggie and cover in iso alcohol. I put water in my ultrasonic cleaner and then put the baggie in the water. My cleaner has an option to heat the water, and I do that because I think it helps, but not necessary. Then a 6 minute cycle, I’ll dump the alcohol, fill with water and run a short cycle to rinse everything well. Then just manually rinse everything off until I’m good. Sometimes after the first cycle, I’ll take the baggie out and give it a good aggressive shake, and run a second round just to make sure.
I use a mighty vaporizer most of the time, so I’m usually cleaning the capsules and mouthpiece, but I do my pipe at the same time, so it usually doesn’t get a big tar ball between cleanings. The first time I used it, I had a peanut M&M sized ball that didn’t desolve, but everything else washed free, so it was loose inside. I put my air hose nozzle on the mouth, a quick blast in the trash, and it was done.
A lot of people recommend little jewelry cleaners which I think are under $50, but I grabbed a larger one from harbor freight for a little over $80 and I think it was the right choice. I have a glass bubbler attachment for my vape that gets gnarly on the inside, and it’s kind of long and wouldn’t fit in a smaller cleaner.
Not sure if this is the most environmentally-correct answer, but I’ve usually put old, beyond redemption glassware into a thick bag (like a dog food bag) and sealed it up. Those bags are usually thick enough that even if the glass breaks, it usually won’t break through.
Sealing the glass up in the same bags, I’ve also smashed them to pieces small enough that they’re no longer shards (depends on what i’m throwing away).
Glass is typically able to be cleaned in all but the worst cases, so I don’t throw it away often. Usually it’s when a glass or plate breaks and I don’t want to risk injury to the sanitation workers.
Peroxide and then hypochlorite bleach. Not at the same time. There are products that contain them if you can’t get them neat. In fact I recommend those.
Try the peroxide first. Dilute as necessary. Wipe or spray on. Leave it on for a while to loosen anything and everything it can. After a while fill with hot (60-80C) water, but beware of thermal shock. Leave to stand until warm, not hot. Try to clean the glasses as best you can. This may be all you need.
If not, try the bleach. Same steps, but make sure you’re in a well ventilated area. I’ve found that while it stinks up the place, the mould just peels right off and into the hot bleach solution.
If the glasses smell of bleach afterwards, fill with warm water and leave for a day or two. Repeat as necessary. The bleach will dissipate eventually.
Strong acid, strong base. Bake at 500C over night if it’s borosilicate to bake off all organics. It won’t get much cleaner than that.
Probably depends on where you live but if its gross just put it in the garbage. If you are concerned about the workers safety, put it in a box and fill the box with other trash so it doesn’t present a danger. Not all glass can be recycled even if its put into the recycling bin. But even glass that is not recyclable can be used for lots of other things. One of the cool things I discovered a bunch of years ago is that junk glass that isn’t recyclable can be used to capturing methane from old landfill (they create a thick layer of crushed glass on the top of the old landfill and then cover that with a membrane and then they can suck the gas that is stuck between the glass layer and the membrane.)
have you tried using bleach or drain cleaner (prills; sodium hydroxide) to clean it
Me, I’d put them in general waste. I might wrap them or put them in a sturdy paper bag if I had any, and put that in a plastic bag to contain the evil.
A jet wash will undoubtedly remove whatever gunk is there.
bottle brush
Just lob it in the bin.
