Why does plastic absorb smells? Once I had a cologne bottle leak

[raccoon]

all over a plastic zip-up thing that held toiletries.

I had to wash and wash and let the plastic thing sit and sit and sit with baking soda in it. Finally the smell subsided.

Other anecdote, my sister & her husband had some shrimp and bottled soda in a refrigerator. Refrigerator broke down and a week or so later they went to the house and discovered this. Needless to say, the soda was totally undrinkable.

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Plastic is porous

and also degrades over time, more or less quickly depending on the contents it encases. That's why things such as bleach bottles or containers of insecticide, should never be be re-used.

Using baking soda does not completely absorb and remove the odor from things as much as it neutralizes it.

[mikelgb]

2. fats/oils and plastic have similar structures so they bond quite well

especially if you add the heat of a microwave

I wish there was a return to glass and metal as the primary packaging and vessels that we use.

[raccoon]

4. See my thread on the Lounge about returning to 1957.

One thing I remember too, so many containers were glass back then. And so much less plastic around.

[Cresent City Kid]

5. I try to drink mostly from glasses

When I smell dish soap in a drink, it's all I can taste. My wife finds it curious that I sniff a cup before filling it, but this is why.

[trotsky]

6. Big downside to glass & metal...

production and shipping costs. Plastic is cheap to make and light to ship.

[Warpy]

8. It's also light to lug home from the store, making it a godsend

for people who have to shop for big families, urban dwellers, and old folks. Once home, plastic bags for bulk goods like beans and grains keep the bugs out, something the paper bags we used to use in the dark ages didn't do. If you didn't have glass jars to transfer the stuff into, it fed the bugs and not you.

It's not all bad, in other words.

The only part I'd like to see banned outright is the plastic bag and the best way to do that is to offer reusable bags at a nominal cost and charge an arm and a leg for the plastic. They'd disappear rather quickly, IMO, maybe a status symbol for places like Sak's and only in NYC.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. And plastic doesn't break if you drop it in the shower

[BootinUp]

3. Different plastics have different

barrier properties, absorption properties, most all of them will allow some penetration of moisture and other chemicals. PTFE or others in that family may be the best barriers. In general the semi-crystallines like PE, PP, PET are at the high end for barriers.

[Bitwit1234]

7. Have you ever microwaved spaghetti sauce .

Not only does the garlic stay forever, and you have to keep that plastic bowl for that only, the red stain never disappears. I bought a set of graduated size bowls and now use them only for the microwave. I use glass bowls for everything else.

[Warpy]

9. A bleach solution can get rid of the stains

usually without affecting the color of the plastic. It can also partially neutralize the odor. The bowl will stink of bleach for a couple of days, just leave it in the dish drainer for it to dissipate.

Fat carries flavor and plastics are made from oil. That's why plastic attracts and holds odors we don't want it to. Eventually, the odors dissipate, but some of them seem to want to hang on until we're dead and buried. If something rots in a plastic container, the smart thing to do is toss it. Really.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I've read that heating plastic can allow some of it to get into your food, so I am

avoiding using plastic in microwaves these days just in case.