​PVC, Plastics, Copper, and Food-Medical Grade Plastics Why It All Matters

PVC,Plastics, Copper, and Food-Medical Grade Plastics & Why It AllMatters


Tostart with the reasoning I am going to write this article is becauseof posts I keep running across in various online Forums of peopletalking about their grow systems, and things they are using or doingin their grow systems, like PVC as one example, or another guy whopulled out all the copper from his system and almost killed off allof his plants for doing it. I sit here now even wondering if he stillknows why he almost killed off all his plants yet or not. What ahorrible lesson for him to come so close to learning, but even insharing his experience how many who read his post will even know whyhe came so close to killing them all off?


Istrongly always encourage people to do their own research, because ifyou spend no less than 15-minutes doing your own research you'regoing to learn something new, and after an hour of researching youwill have a good basis of an idea of what you really do or do notknow. Don't just take someone else's word for what does or does notwork, but take their information and do your own research and seewhat more you can learn based off what you learned from them. All ofthis is important because of how it is going to work for you oragainst you and your own growing system. Which I hope to open youreyes to as I explore these topics now.

Food-MedicalPlastics:
Asyou learn about plastics keep in mind that there are plastics outthere which I have seen some companies out there proudly state are“Food or Medical Grade Plastics” which means these are held tosome very strict standards for not leeching chemicals or allowingbacteria and things to cultivate on them, etc... When it comes to the5-Gallon Buckets I use for things, when I am at the home improvementstore I can buy a standard 5-Gallon Bucket, but I have to pay alittle bit more for a 5-Gallon Bucket that has this label printedright on the side “Food Grade Plastic”. I do not mean a sticker,but rather it is printed into the plastic itself so you do notconfuse it with another type of a 5-Gallon Bucket.


Ialso buy them from a fast food restaurant chain called “Wendy's”in the United States, or I can get them from other restaurant/foodplaces, some places charge you for them, others are happy to givethem away for FREE. The one's we buy from Wendy's are smaller, I amthinking 2-Gallon Buckets, I have a lot of various sized Food GradeBuckets around here so its hard to remember. You can also get them upto 50-Gallon Drums in Food Grade Plastic, I know because I have acouple of those as well, and I have seen them for sale online atreasonable prices.


PVC& The Common Plastics:
Itseems that a majority of people mistakenly think that all plasticsare PVC, but in fact that isn't true at all, and that is why plasticshave symbols and numbers within a triangle to identify which type ofplastic we are talking about. So why does which type of plasticsmatter, what's the big deal anyways? Let us examine some of the morecommon plastics you might be using everyday relating to your owngrowing system and see how big of a deal these are to your ownsuccessful grow. Also remember that what your plants absorb and youlater consume will thus become a part of you.


Thefollowing information was simply found by doing a Google Search on“Plastic Symbols And Meanings”
<h3 class="western">Plastic #1 –PETE or PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)</h3>

• \t
• Picked up by most\tcurbside recycling programs, plastic #1 is usually clear and used to\tmake soda and water bottles. Some consider it safe, but this plastic\tis known to allow bacteria to accumulate.

<h3 class="western">Plastic #2 –HDPE (High Density Polyethylene)</h3>Plastic#2 is typically opaque and picked up by most curbside recyclingprograms. This plastic is one of the 3 plastics consideredto be safe,and has a lowerrisk of leaching.
<h3 class="western">Plastic#3 – V or PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride)</h3>

• \t
• Chloride is another term\tfor Chlorine, aka bleach, which I would seriously encourage you to\tdo some of your own research on how chlorine works and why it is so\tbad for you, for the same reasons it makes water safe to drink. It\twas a real eye opener for me, and that is why I avoid it in water\tand the water I feed my plants with.\t
• Plastic #3 is used to\tmake plumbing pipes. These\tplastics\tused to,\tand still may, contain phthalates, which are linked to numerous\thealth issues ranging from developmental problems to\tmiscarriages.\tThey\talso contain DEHA, which can be carcinogenic with long-term\texposure. DEHA has also been linked to loss of bone mass and liver\tproblems.
  
  
  \t

Plastic #7 –Other, Miscellaneous

• \t
• All of the plastic resins\tthat don't fit into the other categories are placed\tin the number 7 category. It's a mix bag of plastics that\tincludes polycarbonate, which contains the toxic bisphenol-A\t(BPA). These plastics should be avoided due to possibly containing\thormone disruptors like BPA, which has been linked to infertility,\thyperactivity, reproductive problems, and other health issues.

• \t
• Plastic #7 is found in 3-\tand 5-gallon water bottles,

This and more informationcan be found at this website:
http://naturalsociety.com/recycling-symbols-numbers-plastic-bottles-meaning/#ixzz3fkNQW6Gb



Now lets look at some hardfacts about PVC and where I got my information from:

- PVChas also been blamed for emitting chemical softeners calledphthalates (in vinyl flooring), lead additives (in blinds), and toxicglues. For instance, one study of PVC shower curtains found that theyreleased phthalates capable of causing nausea and damage to the liverand reproductive system. Vinyl chloride, an essential component ofPVC, is a carcinogenic and potentially explosive gas with a mild,sweet odor. It can enter drinking water released from contact withPVC pipes, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
http://www.nachi.org/pvc-health-hazards.htm

-Healthcare leaders in Europe and the U.S. are increasingly preferringproducts that do not contain polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic. Areamong the leaders minimizing their PVC use in order to protect thehealth of patients, the public, and the environment.
http://noharm.org/lib/downloads/pvc/Moving_Away_fr...


Iheard this pointed out recently by a professional grower, and havingspent a few years in the plastics industry myself working atfactories starting out as a grunt worker and working my way up tomanagement I have to agree with him where he stated “At this pointdonot think the companies selling you their products care at this pointas to what plastics they do or do not use, because right now there isno regulations which control this things, so if you don't do your ownresearch you could end up paying the price later when you find outwhat type of plastic in a partof your growing system could come back to bite you and cause youissues later on with your plants”.


IsPVC really that big of a deal, really? Honestly I used to wonder thatvery question myself, and having worked making PVC pipe of all types,sizes, and even the fittings for them I really tried to search outthis answer for a long time. But my answer would come later on in theform of a friend and some experiments which we would later perform.Keep in mind this is a real life true experience, and that is why Iam going to share it with you, because it is a valuable lesson Imyself learned.

ThePVC Water Experiment:
Understandthat in the year 2000 our tiny rural town upgraded our entire watersystem from old cast iron, and we switched from well water for thetown to water being brought to us from over 90+ miles away from awater treatment plant, which meant they had a lot of pipe to lay tobring that water out to us. When my houses water line got connectedto the main at the street I cared about it being made out of copper,for now just chalk it up to me just being the way I am, and all of mywater lines throughout the entire house are also all copper. Myfriend's house has the black flexible plastic pipe coming out of thewall from the main, and she connects to PVC & CPVC pipe whichcarries water throughout her house.


Oneday she was down here and she was drinking water from my house, shecouldn't believe how good it tasted and kept on about it. Seriouslyshe lives one block away from me and this town is so small that youcan walk from one side to the other in literally 5-minutes time, so Ididn't believe her. Its the same water for me as for her andeverybody else who lives in this town, only one water tower. But sheinsisted mine tasted better repeatedly. I am all about science and soI wanted to put this to the test, and so here is what I did.


Igot water from her in a glass jars, one jar went in the fridge, onesat out at room temperature, and another I made lemonade in; and Idid the exact same things to the water that came from my tap. When Ihad the friends get together I had my control group, so I put themall to the test... does the water taste differently? Everyone agreedmy water tasted so much better in every test... So now I wanted toknow why? I mean my plants love my house water, but what makes it soamazing... I needed to know.


NextI gave her some house plants from the ones I had here, because I hada lot of plants, within a week or two at her house they were notlooking so well. I considered all kinds of things as possible causes,and when nothing seemed to matter, I came back to the water again. SoI took water from her house and I gave some of it to a controlledgroup of plants at my house and I took some of my water and I gave itto a controlled group of her plants there. It wasn't long and myplants at her place given my water begin to pull out of it, and theother plants soon died. So I now knew the issue had to deal with thewater... but now I really wanted to understand the problem and cause.


Shehad all of her pipes replaced, but instead of spending about 4-5times the price to do it all in copper she put in all new PVC &CPVC (which is a type of PVC that is not suppose to break downchemically and leech chemicals into the water when hot water passesthrough it). The problem still existed and didn't change at all... SoI took a piece of copper pipe I had laying around and I put it in ajar with her water and I feed the plants with that water after it sat24-hours... the problem of her water was fixed. Now I wanted toreally dig into this issue, copper seemed to be the answer, so I duginto copper.


Copper:
Ifound out that the Egyptians was the first people in history topurify water by running it through a copper pipe, which actuallydebate because if you read the Bible you will see they used to washin a copper bowl before entering the tent to worship Jehovah GOD. Butall in all copper dates back to purification long before other forms.But this information raised questions like how long of a copper pipe,or how long did the water have to be in contact with the copper towork, because while I learned some things I still didn't have theseanswers. So I kept digging into copper, and came to find out some newbig state of the art hospital was just being opened in Denver,Colorado in the United States where the water facets, sinks, andother commonly touched areas where made of copper... They pointed outthat the copper would kill pathogens such as mad cows disease, HIV,etc... all by just coming into contact with the copper. I even foundmedical cleaning solutions which contained copper for this reason aswell.


Gettingback the guy who removed all the copper from his growing system, Ijust remembered everything I know about copper and couldn't help butwonder as to what almost killed off his plants. I have been seriouslythinking about how I want to build my first hydroponic/aeronauticsystem and I have been seriously thinking of making the sprayer barout of ridged copper and setting it up so I will screw the sprayersinto the copper pipe where I'll have them threaded with a tap. Inreading people talking about light causing mold to grow inside oftheir water recirculating lines when they are made out of clear vinylI got to thinking I should perhaps make mine out of soft coppertubing. It should also help me be able to cool down my water as welllike a still if I wind the soft copper in a spiral... and then justuse a fan to push air over the tubing... hum... I wonder how thatwould work? I will play around with some small copper ice maker waterline and if I like the results I can always upgrade it and make itinto a much bigger system, before I spend cash to waste it on aproject to see if my idea(s) pan out or not.


UsePlastic Or Fiberglass:
Nowsince I know enough about plastics I know enough to know I do notwant to carry or keep my water in a plastic jug or container becauseof what I know. So I decided to look at what some other growers aregoing with, and I have to say I was impressed by some people'sinventiveness. I found some where using fiberglass, one person uses afiberglass utility sink, so they have the drain connected up to thesewer and a rubber plug to pull out to drain the water tank. I haveto say I was impressed, fiberglass is used in things like fiberglassinsulation to insulate houses and other things, and even bathtubs, soyou know they come in all kinds of sizes, they are strong and I likethe idea of just plugging a plug to drain the system and beingconnected up to a water supply. I could easily insulate an enclosurelike this, and if it ever was damaged they make a fiberglass repairkit you can buy at a home improvement store that can fix some hugeholes, and you can't even tell it was even there afterwards, which isalso really simple to use.


Conclusion:
Isincerely hope that you do some of your own research on all of thesetopics, and that some how I have opened your eyes to helping youbuild a better growing system. It is because of these things I havelearned that I am working to design and then build hopefully anawesome grow system.