The beach bucket is the most nostalgic of all bucket varieties. As kids, it’s likely that these colored containers were our first ever bucket experience. These pint-sized pails usually measure in at a gallon or less, but they’re perfectly scaled to the children using them.
Most buckets are round, but not every problem requires a cylindrical solution! In many cases, square buckets work better.
Since our buildings are by and large squares or rectangles, I theorize that square buckets are better for use indoors. When was the last time you looked in a commercial kitchen and saw round buckets filling their shelves?
Want to know if your buckets are food grade? Checking is easy, just find the recycling symbol and cross reference with this article.
The best food grade buckets are HDPE, symbol #2. HDPE represents high-density polyethylene. The molecules of HDPE are more tightly packed and stable than other food grade plastics, meaning less plastic can leach into your precious food stores. HDPE also builds a better bucket since it’s a very sturdy type of plastic.
Until recently, bucket making was a very important profession. Every town had bucket makers, or “Cooper.” This noble profession has mostly diminished into obscurity, but examples of the Cooper’s workshop are still immortalized in museums.
Sometimes, a plastic bucket just doesn’t cut the salami. That’s when you have to recruit the only material stronger, tougher and more versatile – steel.
Metal 5 gallon buckets are much harder to find than standard plastic ones. They’re also more expensive. Metal has been replaced with plastic in most applications. The only exceptions I can find are paints, industrial lubricants and other similar heavy industrial applications. Continue reading
