What could possibly be the connection here? Read on!
A while back a fellow comes in and asks how much our primary fermentors are. $17.95 for pail including lid. The fellow then replied that he could get them for $8.00. This was a shock, as we immediately went to our purchase orders and confirmed that we were paying more than that for our product. We explained that the product they are offering might not be equivalent, perhaps a different kind of plastic (perhaps not even a good food grade) or different size.
Of course, this was bugging us that we might be paying, and therefore charging, much more than was necessary for this product. We phoned around local plastic container wholesalers looking for an equivalent product to our 32L recycle #5 food grade plastic pails. There was nothing available locally.
This leads to questions as to what the kind of plastics can be offered for this cheap of price. Lower grade plastics don’t have to worry about leaching into food, as they are often used for industrial products like cleaning agents, chemicals etc. These containers are cheaper and easier to produce. Often these types of plastic containers contain formaldahyde, which is a very widely used product which also acts as a preservative. That explains why garbage cans are less likely to shatter in very cold weather, as they are more pliable. It also happens to be a primary product used for embalming! While good for the dead, it is not so much so for the living. We are in business to ensure that winemakers and beermakers have the equipment they need to make a good quality product, not to help them to a premature embalming! I’m certain that would be bad for business…