Glass Or Plastic

[user 58545]

So I have several books, all from good authors, well known I would imagine in the soap making world. When it comes to the vessel to mix your ingredients in some say use only plastic and others are using glass.

I would rather use the correct thing, so glass or plastic or does it not really matter? I have been using a plastic bowl but seems an odd curve. Well I know what I mean.

Is mixing in a jug ok ? I see they do that on Bramble Berry videos

 

[Ford]

Hi, I bought the best plastic bowl. They had at the $tore. It is said the lye solution etchs glass. I cannot verify that. Plastic is lighter to work with. They use a lot of glass, in the videos. For taping purposes I assume.

 

[AliOop]

My understanding is that the official SMF position is to recommend against use of any glass container for lye solution or mixing soap batter.

I recommend reading this thread which summarizes a lot of other threads on this issue.

 

[user 58545]

Ok thanks. Will get a two litre plastic Jug

 

[dmcgee5034]

I couldn’t find one at the dollar store that I liked or felt safe to soap in, so I got this one on Amazon and it’s really nice. I love the spout and that it holds my batter with plenty of room.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UZL2AO8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[user 58545]

I got one of these, was the largest I could find on Amazon in the UK. - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DFTG49N

 

[Savage Daughter]

I use glass & stainless steel for all product making. That excludes my silicone utensils.

To me, it makes a great deal more sense that lye would cause microplastics & other toxins used to make plastics to be released into my products, which I wish to prevent as much as possible. Glass etching is something which actual people who work with glass say does not happen when it comes to lye, so personally I take their advice as they have a great deal more experience with this material than the vast majority of soap makers.

 

[Shelley D]

So I have several books, all from good authors, well known I would imagine in the soap making world. When it comes to the vessel to mix your ingredients in some say use only plastic and others are using glass.

I would rather use the correct thing, so glass or plastic or does it not really matter? I have been using a plastic bowl but seems an odd curve. Well I know what I mean.

Is mixing in a jug ok ? I see they do that on Bramble Berry videos

Just my 2 cents ~ all my research said stainless steel or plastic. Stainless steel bowls can be found in almost every thrift store here in the US and I got some plastic pitchers and buckets from Amazon. I really like the funnel pitcher because it helps control the flow when I'm pouring into cavity molds. I use the painter's buckets for mixing my lye solution and stainless steel bowls for melting my butters and oils (double boiler style, over a pot of boiling water).

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I use glass & stainless steel for all product making. That excludes my silicone utensils.

Me too.

To me, it makes a great deal more sense that lye would cause microplastics & other toxins used to make plastics to be released into my products, which I wish to prevent as much as possible.

Thanks for that explanation. I feel the same way. The one time I used a repurposed lye container to make the lye solution, it warped. UGH. I've never felt comfortable using plastic to make lye -- but that's just me.

Glass etching is something which actual people who work with glass say does not happen when it comes to lye, so personally I take their advice as they have a great deal more experience with this material than the vast majority of soap makers.

Lye does etch (weaken) glass over time.

My Pyrex 8-cup pitcher lasted 13 years. When I replaced it with a new Pyrex 8-cup it lasted only 2 months! It split in half cleanly around the middle when I mistakenly set hot glass into a sink full of cool water. Lesson learned. I found a vintage 8-cup Pryex on line (Deo gratias) and I'm back in business now. I also found a Borosilicate glass 8-cup pitcher on Amazon, which is what the original Pyrex was made of. That's what I would buy if I was just starting out.

Glass vs. Pyrex

As you may have noticed on YouTube, any of us "Old Timere" prefer glass because you can easily see what is going on with the contents and because of what @QuasiQuadrant mentioned about plastic use above.

 

[cmzaha]

I used hdpe pails like these that I could melt and soap in. I would master batch 10-12 batches up in these pails so when I was ready to soap I would just have to melt them and I was ready to go. I used 1-2 gallon buckets but the 1/2 gallon size is great for smaller batches. I made up 6-12 lb batches at a time. These pails last for years in fact I still have a few of my original soaping pails that have made up hundreds of batches of soap, with a dedicated microwave oven for melting.
https://tinyurl.com/58zu4hm8

 

[Misschief]

Why take chances? It has been shown that the lye solution can etch glass over time and it's impossible to tell when it will fail; if it happens to shatter when it's full of lye solution, would you want to be in the way? I use a stainless steel bowl - no etching, no warping, easy to clean.

 

[dibbles]

I mix my lye solution in stainless steel. I mix my soap batter in plastic. I’ve just heard enough stories about glass shattering that I consider it to be a risk. It is possible that a minuscule amount of micro plastic might be released into soap batter (I’ve never seen anything documented about this), but personal safety for the maker is important too. I think there is a greater risk using glass to make soap. Even if a direct injury doesn’t happen, who wants to clean up a lye solution or caustic batter spill with glass shards in the mix?

I do use glass for things other than soap.

 

[Relle]

My choice, I'm not taking any chances with lye and glass, I don't want to be covered in lye and broken glass and end up in hospital. I've already been burnt with lye (my stupidity) and it took 3 months to heal. It doesn't hurt me to practice OH&S at home.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Me too.

Thanks for that explanation. I feel the same way. The one time I used a repurposed lye container to make the lye solution, it warped. UGH. I've never felt comfortable using plastic to make lye -- but that's just me.

Lye does etch (weaken) glass over time.

My Pyrex 8-cup pitcher lasted 13 years. When I replaced it with a new Pyrex 8-cup it lasted only 2 months! It split in half cleanly around the middle when I mistakenly set hot glass into a sink full of cool water. Lesson learned. I found a vintage 8-cup Pryex on line (Deo gratias) and I'm back in business now. I also found a Borosilicate glass 8-cup pitcher on Amazon, which is what the original Pyrex was made of. That's what I would buy if I was just starting out.

Glass vs. Pyrex

As you may have noticed on YouTube, any of us "Old Timere" prefer glass because you can easily see what is going on with the contents and because of what @QuasiQuadrant mentioned about plastic use above.

Yes, when referring to glass, I meant Pyrex in some cases, such as mixing my lye solution. For essential oil blending, oil infusions, natural colorant infusions etc I use just plain glass canning jars, which do the job perfectly. It also allows me to seal them up air tight, either using heat or a vacuum sealer for various cold infusions.

I did initially buy some plastic pitchers & small buckets for test batches this time around but have set that aside. Fortunately I'm not out much money & it wasn't a lot of plastic material overall. And I have been LOVING using my wooden birch molds, which are stellar, although I just received my custom craft tools molds....and am rethinking their use That IS a LOT of money spent, but I hadn't thought things through well enough at that stage So I will likely be lining them with something which doesn't involve plastic so they're not a waste of resources, or possibly re-selling them. I don't know what the right thing to do with that is right now. Our bodies are already overloaded with plastic of all sorts, including microplastics & the many toxins used to produce plastics, as are all of our waters, our air, our soil, our foods, the entire global environment, so adding to that - even more so with suppliers shipping everything in #&@&ing bubblewrap - is not something I'm ok with. Those 'miniscule' bits add up to many thousands of dumptruck-loads, yearly, that are killing everything, including us. I regularly gather this stuff from the little cove near my house, loads of it, so I get to see & feel what a huge issue plastics are in real time. It disgusts me, so if there's something which I can do to mitigate this situation, I feel I have a personal responsibility to do so. I'm using my stainless steel canner for mixing soap batches now & large Pyrex measuring cups for my lye mixing. That also allows me to see how well things are dissolving, as you mentioned

Yes, buy vintage Pyrex whenever possible. Second had stores rock, for so many things. The new stuff is not the same product. And demand better from the manufacturers by emailing them & complaining. Become a pain in their arse because that's the only way things change with large corporations for the moment.

 

[DeeAnna]

The issue of strong alkali gradually etching glass, including Pyrex type glass, isn't an opinion... it's proven fact. But whether you choose to accept that fact or not doesn't really matter.

The bottom line is glass ... any type of glass ... will break if it's dropped. That is also a fact whether the glass item is new out of the box and utterly pristine or old, scratched and well used. For this reason, one's decision to use glass in soap making is a conscious choice to increase risk. If there are no other alternatives, then maybe that makes sense. But in this particular matter, there are safer alternatives.

I have no desire to clean up a spill of lye solution or soap batter in the first place, but if I choose to make soap, then this is an inescapable risk I accept. On the other hand, I do my best to minimize the risk by working carefully, understanding the correct first aid measures, and wearing appropriate protective gear. And avoiding breakable glass items. It's bad enough to clean up a broken glass bowl of Jello. It's far worse to clean up a broken glass container of hazardous lye solution or soap batter.

I cannot fathom why someone would deliberately increase the risk by choosing to use breakable glass when there are proven, safer alternatives.

 

[BritS]

The only containers I use are polypropylene. I haven’t had any issues with them warping or eating at the container. I found them at the Webstaurant online store. They were inexpensive and haven’t worn in the slightest.

 

[Blufuz]

I hadn’t realized glass could actually explode from lye but is that due to a rapid change in temperature? Or somehow the “etching”?

I use thick glass because I’m terrified of accidentally knocking over the container and spilling whatever is inside. This happened to me several times with the plastic containers I eventually use for making smaller batches, but fortunately that was always in the sink and the soap had already reached trace.

The glass is also nice to see what’s happening at the bottom; I’d otherwise miss it if a lye-crust had formed in a plastic container.

Regarding microplastics, yeah, it’s not great if they’re dispersed in the environment. I guess the specific plastics that don’t react with lye at all aren’t going to be a problem, but I don’t know enough about chemistry to identify such plastics.

Now I’m not sure what to do…

 

[Savage Daughter]

I'll never use any plastics in making any products period.... Even water in plastic transfers so during a chemical reaction that's a big NO NO for me...

What about distilled water for your soaps & other products, which most of us need to use? Usually packaged in plastic. What about product shrink bands, fragrance oils (the chemicals used to make them can sometimes be found in these too), product packaging, plastic lined cardboard tubes (which I have opted for as it greatly reduces the amount of plastic I put out there myself)? What about the buckets & bags we all receive raw materials in? What about business cards & product tags / labels coated in plastic? What about the computers we use to access this forum, find suppliers & other info? Not to mention the microprocessors / chips / cables / modems etc which allow us to access the internet?

The solution is not black & white, and there is no one right way of doing things. For me, the important thing is to minimize their use myself whenever possible, in the products we purchase, the equipment we use, as well as the products we make - including the same chemicals used in plastics which can be found in many other raw materials, such as fragrance oils, preservatives, you name it. That's one of the reasons I choose to do a lot of research regarding the raw materials I use in my products. How are they made? What's in them? Do their ingredients or processing negatively affect our wellbeing, as well as the wellbeing of other living things, and our planet? Are there better alternatives? 9 times out of 10, there are, and we have the freedom to choose those alternatives.

I absolutely get the fact that plastic is a bane in so many ways (in reality, it doesn't have to be), but the fact is that it does have its uses. That said. we have become far too reliant on plastics (made from petrochemicals) there are far better ways to make them, with far fewer toxins, which emit significantly less disease causing filth into our air, soil, water etc. Manufacturers also need to make a concerted effort to make plastics which are more stable when in contact with other substances, as well as more readily biodegradable than they currently are. Suppliers also need to make a concerted effort in using less plastics, or less toxic ones. And we need to start demanding that corporations are taxed heavily when using plastics to package their products, rather than the many other viable alternatives. At the moment, WE are taxed for the billions of pounds of plastics in our environment, and their recycling / clean-up, rather than the billion dollar corporations adding to this global mess. Personally, I would rather pay a little more for a product which is responsibly packaged, packed & shipped, instead of having more 'environmental taxes' jammed down my throat which ultimately are not being used for any environmentally positive purpose.

Good on you for wishing to minimize your plastic use, but I hope you can also understand that being militant about it isn't going to help any of us, or this earth we live on, or the living beings sharing her with us. Militancy often makes us blind to all the ways we ourselves are contributing to the problem. Making logical, responsible choices, and openly discussing them with others, is what will help us turn this show around.

I hadn’t realized glass could actually explode from lye but is that due to a rapid change in temperature? Or somehow the “etching”?

I use thick glass because I’m terrified of accidentally knocking over the container and spilling whatever is inside. This happened to me several times with the plastic containers I eventually use for making smaller batches, but fortunately that was always in the sink and the soap had already reached trace.

The glass is also nice to see what’s happening at the bottom; I’d otherwise miss it if a lye-crust had formed in a plastic container.

Regarding microplastics, yeah, it’s not great if they’re dispersed in the environment. I guess the specific plastics that don’t react with lye at all aren’t going to be a problem, but I don’t know enough about chemistry to identify such plastics.

Now I’m not sure what to do…

Putting your lye container into a stainless steel pot or other type of vessel can easily prevent accidents. if it cracks / breaks, the lye will be contained & you can easily go on about your business. If not, no problem

 

[Blufuz]

Putting your lye container into a stainless steel pot or other type of vessel can easily prevent accidents. if it cracks / breaks, the lye will be contained & you can easily go on about your business. If not, no problem

I’ll do that, thanks!

 

[Chaiat5]

I use a bunch of stainless steel bowls and Grade 5 plastic jugs.