OK folks, do NOT use old plastic milk jugs to store water. You can never get them clean of all the milk proteins and your water will rapidly become undrinkable. I suspect this person has found that out already.
” OK folks, do NOT use old plastic milk jugs to store water. You can never get them clean of all the milk proteins and your water will rapidly become undrinkable. I “
There are plenty of uses, even in a Survival situation, for non-potable water — toilets still need to be flushed, and eating utensils (and persons) still need to be kept clean and sanitary...
I live in an area that experiences frequent power (and therefore pump) outages, and I learned, after my first time around, to keep separate stockpiles of ‘drinking water’ and ‘flushing water’....
Perhaps you can help me on this. I have a 40 gallon hot water heater filled with 40 gallons of pure, filtered water. Why should I fill up more jugs?
Melancholy and I had this exact discussion a while ago and he described a method he used wherein he was able to store water safely in milk jugs, which I had thought not possible. I always figured milk jug water could be used for washing purposes only. Maybe he’ll chime in with his method.
Clean them immediately after finishing the milk. I’ve had potable water stashed in the woods for years. Carry a canteen in and pour whatever I don’t drink in to replace what I drink from jugs. That said, a lot of people would last about 12 hours in my world, so YMMV.
I respectfully say - Not so.
We live in a storm prone area and putting up emergency water every storm season is just part of our routine every spring.
We have been reusing milk jugs for years and I can state from experience that water we store in cleaned milk jugs is just as sweet in six months to a a year as the day the jugs are filled.
I read somewhere that hot wash water cooks the remaining butterfat. Don't know how valid that is but we have always used cold or cool water to wash and rinse and it works for us. When a milk jug is empty we give it a quick rinse, fill it with cold soapy water, let it sit for a while or overnight, then rinse and air dry several times until the jug is odorless and soap free.
We add a little bleach, fill with tap water and store the jugs out of the light. When the storm season is over we put the jugs, one by one, in the refrigerator and use for drinking water. Then we air dry the jugs and keep the good ones for next year.
Old plastic milk crates or store bought ones that hold four one gallon jugs make them easy to store, easy to handle and help protect the jugs. When it looks like a storm is heading our way it is fast and easy to pack some crates of water in the bailout vehicle.
We also use two liter soda bottles. They are easy to wash but they are cumbersome and not as easy to store and handle as milk jugs.
“OK folks, do NOT use old plastic milk jugs to store water.”
I wonder about these made-in-China cheap-looking containers they have at Wally World. If I’m going to stockpile water, I want to do it right.