Ran across a recycling place nearby that had a bunch of surplus food from a local chain of mega marts, and I was up at their facility grabbing a few tons of food when I noticed that they had pallets of plastic buckets. Hundreds of them. So I asked.
"Well, those buckets are covered in cake frosting and sour cream. So our regular recycler won't take them. " So what are you going to do with them? "Well, we've been stockpiling them hoping to find a use for them".
As a farmer, I cannot have enough plastic buckets. As food dishes, water dishes, to hold commodities, to carry things, to store things... buckets are the glue that holds my farm chores together. A little cake frosting and sour cream? I've got a whole herd of animals that would like nothing better than clean each bucket with their tongues!
So yesterday I picked up about 400 plastic buckets for free.
The other item that they had in quantity that they couldn't get rid of were pallets. These are pretty sturdy.
They're constructed with chunks of 4x6, to standard pallet dimensions. I use them under my baled hay to keep the bottom layers off the ground; for temporary storage of items out in the weather, and in my barn I have a pallet jack where I actually use them as pallets!
Heck, worst comes to worst, there's a fair bit of firewood there.
All in all a happy day.
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7 comments:
Wow. So very jealous! Plastic buckets are essential! Since they stack well, we use them to organize our shop, and even build little kits, and label them with a marker and a big piece of masking tape. The kits are extra useful for emergency or quick fix situations where you don't always have the time to scramble around for parts and tools in different areas of the shop. Ex: animal first aid kit, fencing repair kit, plumbing repair kit, etc. Great things to have around.
Buckets and pallets, just what I am looking for. Wish there was a place like that on the east coast of the state.
Adele
Sweet finds! 5gal buckets are awesome for holding compost tat has already finished decomposing. We have a ton of them, not nearly as much as you though.
Oooh, I have bucket envy. My dad had a good lead once on a donut manufacturer who ended up with scads of 3 gal and 5 gal pails. That was before I needed some. I need more - like you said, an indispensable tool.
@Adele - east coast of Washington?
I too have bucket envy. Scoring things like this are the best part of living in a more populated area - here in the boonies buckets are never given away!
Great find! You can never have too many food grade buckets! Or pallets either.
Bucket envy for sure. I often have good intentions to ask at the bakery if they have dirty frosting buckets as I've heard they throw them away, but I never do. I use to work in a kitchen where I got all the five gallon pickle and pie cherry buckets. I'm needing some buckets for sprouting now, but can't bring myself to drill holes in several buckets for drainage. Buckets at the Feed store are pricey!
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