Five-gallon bucket

History

In the 1960s, buckets were generally made out of metal. In 1967, William Roper, an owner of a plastic-molding company based in Los Angeles, introduced a plastic pail with a lid, creating one of the first five-gallon buckets as a result. At the end of the 20th century, around 170 million five-gallon buckets were produced annually in the United States and Canada. The annual revenue generated from the selling of five-gallon buckets was $350 million.

Design

The buckets are typically fourteen inches tall, with a diameter of twelve inches. A wire or plastic handle is usually attached to the top three inches. Five-gallon buckets are usually designed to be nested in each other for storage. Plastic buckets have more uses due to the popularity of plastic for food products and the tendency of metal pails to rust.

Modern plastic five-gallon buckets are commonly manufactured from high-density polyethylene (HDPE), often marked with the resin identification code "2." Food-grade variants are produced from resins that comply with United States Food and Drug Administration regulations for food-contact materials and may be explicitly labeled as BPA-free. These buckets are widely used to store ingredients such as brines, syrups, and dry goods, and often use gasketed lids to improve sealing and reduce contamination risk.

Sustainability

Unused buckets from restaurants occasionally end up in landfills. Some five-gallon buckets that are placed in recycling bins might not end up being recycled, as it is usually cheaper to create new plastics than recycle them.

Safety

Small children can fall inside of the bucket and not have the strength or weight to escape, as it was designed to avoid tipping over. At the end of the 20th century, roughly 40 deaths per year were caused by drowning in a 5-gallon bucket across the United States.

Warning labels

In an effort to reduce the risk of small children falling in and drowning, a visual warning label is often present on the side of five-gallon buckets.

References

Sources

References

1. (1994-07-08). "Plastic Buckets; Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Request for Comments and Information". Consumer Product Safety Commission.
2. "What Plastic Is a 5-Gallon Bucket?".
3. "How Do You Know if Buckets Are Food Grade?".
4. "5 Gallon Bucket – BPA-Free, Food-Grade (T40MW) – Technical Specifications".
5. "Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, §177.1520 – Olefin Polymers".
6. Baer, Kim. (2008-04-22). "They're easy on the Earth".
7. "MIT School of Engineering {{!}} » Why is it cheaper to make new plastic bottles than to recycle old ones?".
8. "Large Buckets Are Drowning Hazards For Young Children".