In the last 1 1/2 to 2 years I have come into contact with plastic that has a really rank smell.
First time was in a building that had been closed up for a while, so sniffed around and found some plastic sheeting, like visqueen.
Later some of those plastic home storage tubs smelled the same way.
The other day I put in some 6/3 with a black jacket on it, there was an 8 ft. scrap piece and a guy threw in the back of my truck. It was in the truck all next day the truck was closed up and it was hot out. When it was time to go home I got in the truck and couldn’t hardly stand it, so I rolled down the windows and started driving.
I don’t know if it’s the plastic or the process they use to make it.
But to my sniffer this stuff is awful.
Any one else notice this?
Replies
Any chance it might be recycled plastic that maybe didn't quite have all of the impuritys abated?
I have no idea if this is even a possibility, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
Yeah, certain types of plastic, particularly the cheap stuff they use in plastic buckets and the like, seem to be able to pick up a really rank odor. Dunno what it is..
I notice all sorts of strange smells from things made in China, especially Harbor Freight stuff. Stuff made in China, can not avoid it and not all stuff from China smells, but the worst ones do come from there.
You guys ever mill any Azek? Smells like cat piss
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I've milled miles of it, and have the exact odor nailed--bleachy skunk.
Uh---- how do you bleach a skunk?
I don't know, but Azek has figured out how to extrude a bleachy skunk.
My guess is that the bleach smell has to do with the "C" in "PVC". The skunk part might be formaldehyde? I don't know.
Cat piss is more of an ammonia smell. Maybe skunks piss chlorine.
sub it out...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
LOL
When the skunks around here come to dine at the garbage heap, all the subs leave. Coons, possums, cats, and fox all take the night off.
Just can't get dependable help anymore.
Dave
Urea-based plastics.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
I was going to say that the plastic drafting film (mylar, I think) I drew on when I was a planning assistant in the late 70's smelled like cat piss. Nasty!
One of those plastic storage tubs did say something about mylar on it.
Doubt that it's Mylar. Mylar is only produced in film form and is frequeently used in food packaging, so it's not apt to exude a lot of smelly chemicals.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
I think most of what you are smelling is Formaldehyde. Part of the process that makes the plastic. Vapors in themselves are very nocuous and need to be avoided in confined places. Over time they do expel from the products.
I think I can relate to what you are talking about. My dad had an old samsonite briefcase when I was a kid and it smelled like some funkadelic body odor. I have also noticed similar smells from large plastic outdoor pots for tomatoes, etc. Some outdoor kids toys. I think UV rays may break certain types down and create the stank.
Its them recycled drywall joint compound buckets that some one shat in.
Parolee # 40835
Guess any recycle'ln is better than none.
Go put that in yer compost bin!...not to want food the next season; secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whom they brought over in numbers from Fatherland. In the course of three or four years, when the country became adapted to agriculture, they built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several thousands."-Thoreau's Walden
My wife has 13 large plastic tubs she stores Christmas decor in. They're in a storage unit until Christmas. When she brings them in the house and starts unloading them, the smell is awful. Then, we stack the empties in the garage and it stinks up the whole garage.
She recently brought home a tub to slide under the bed for storage. She's complainging to me that the cat p!ssed on the carpet. I even got down with my nose in the carpet (anything to please DW) and sniffed. Told her I couldn't smell anything. She finally quit b_____, complaining when I told her it was her tub.
Pete
It's likely polybutylene or something blended with polybutylene. The stuff smells like cat urine right after it's made, but fortunately the smell fades over time.
Unfortunately so does its mechanical strength as the millions of folks with PB water pipes found out.
My vote is that it's a phthalate. They're used to soften up plastic, but they can stink like all hell. You'll sometimes see a slimy / oily coating on the surface of the plastic as well.
One key difference I've seen between phthalates and formaldehydes is that the stink doesn't really go away with the phthalates. Ever. My wife was given a handbag that just reeked when we took it out of the wrapper. Left the thing outside in full sunshine for 3 or 4 days, still stank when we brought it in. Fortunately, I was able to talk her into giving it away.
If you want to (needlessly?) scare yourself, search on phthalates at the Greenpeace web site. Not that I'm recommending them as a unbiased news source. Or check out the wikipedia article for something slightly better balanced.
Glen
http://www.phthalates.com/
http://www.nottoopretty.org/
http://website.lineone.net/~mwarhurst/phthalates.html
http://www.reason.org/peg2.html
In this course which our ancestors took there was a show of prudence at least, as if their principle were to satisfy the more pressing wants first. But are the more pressing wants satisfied now? When I think of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious dwellings, I am deterred, for, so to speak, the country is not yet adapted to human culture, and we are still forced to cut our spiritual bread far thinner than our forefathers did their wheaten. -Thoreau's Walden