question for those who recycle bottles...

[Comfygirl]

How do you get the labels off the bottles of the pre-made ejuice bottles?
Normally, for labels of any kind, I usually use lemon essential oil and scrape with my fingernails and scrub with paper towels but I figured since y'all (I'm trying to pick up the Texas lingo... LoL) do this all the time, perhaps there would be simpler suggestions...

 

[Foggz]

lighter fluid, nail polish remover, alcohol, or 'goof off' after a hot water soak. Different glues will need one or the other .. and overall alcohol is the least effective. If the bottles are glass I use a plastic dish scrubber pad sometimes.

 

[Larry J]

I decided long ago that trying to get labels off in order to recycle bottles from pre-made wasn't worth the effort. I buy plastic bottles that are inexpensive enough that it's well worth the minimal cost compared taking the time and energy to remove old labels.

 

[AndriaD]

lighter fluid, nail polish remover, alcohol, or 'goof off' after a hot water soak. Different glues will need one or the other .. and overall alcohol is the least effective. If the bottles are glass I use I plastic dish scrubber pad sometimes.

Yeah the dish scrubbers are a godsend for that crap, but only if the scrubber is molded plastic, and new. Silicone erasers (the pure white kind, artists use them because they don't contain silica) work well if it's not a whole lot of residue to remove. I really haven't had success with *any* chemicals, just plain elbow grease. If you have more money than time to spend removing that stuff, might be best just to trash the ones that are really stubborn, and buy new bottles. If you're more concerned with saving money than time, then it's definitely worth the effort.

I really only try to save the bottles that had Mylar labels, that way there's no paper residue left behind, just the adhesive -- if you can get the label off just as soon as you're done with the bottle's first use, it's helpful; the longer it stays on, the harder that adhesive is to remove.

Also -- if you have a 10ml bottle of, say, a flavor, that has a mylar label, you can actually re-use those labels on larger bottles -- I've done that with a label for INW Shisha Strawberry -- took the mylar label off the 10ml when it was done, and applied it to a 30ml bottle, which I use to pour some from the 100ml bottles of shisha strawberry I buy now -- that way the original 100ml bottle never has a syringe stuck into it, potentially adulterating the whole contents.



Andria

 

[Comfygirl]

I used my tried and true method of lemon essential oil and soapy water and of course that worked... I despise unnecessary waste and re-use EVERYTHING. My husband and I only produce about 1 garbage bag a month; less of a foot print on the environment.

Thank you all so much for the input!

 

[Firestorm]

I use lighter fluid and my fingernails to remove labels from old glass dropper bottles and then I put them in the dishwasher so I can reuse them for DIY mixes.

 

[Chrispdx]

Another vote for nail polish remover. Generally works like a dream. It's not too bad on time because I use it to also wipe off paint from a sharpie paint pen I use on all my bottles...which is water and heat resistant.

 

[KDodds]

I used my tried and true method of lemon essential oil and soapy water and of course that worked... I despise unnecessary waste and re-use EVERYTHING. My husband and I only produce about 1 garbage bag a month; less of a foot print on the environment.

Thank you all so much for the input!

OMG, I thought I was the only one! My wife and kids think I'm nuts. But, when they go away and I have the house to myself, I don't even fill a garbage bag. They've been gone as long as two and a half weeks. When they're home, to my chagrin, we generate a garbage bag per day, at least, sometimes two.

 

[Comfygirl]

Since moving to Austin. I'm in "green" heaven! Single use grocery plastic bags are illegal and next year all restaurants must compost. There are tons of upcycle groups that will accept all kinds of stuff to use as craft projects and the thrift stores! They are everywhere. For the first time I'm not the only person with a car that's older than ten years and doesn't live in a double wide haha

 

[VapeVillian]

Super simple, one of the 2 worked for me. Boiling water with either Ever clear or Vinegar. I guess you could combine the two, but I have yet to need to.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[KDodds]

I just did this on a bunch of old bottles I'd been hording in expectation of DIYing juice. Mostly I'm mixing testers in 10ml or 30ml HDPE. But I think glass is a much more viable long term storage solution, even though I prefer the PEs for filling. Anyway... I can vouch for all labels not being created equal and alcohol being the worst possible solvent in all cases. Some, like TMaxx, will come off easily and cleanly with just water and a good scrubbing. These are the nice ones. Other's, like MaddCatt, have a glue that is probably impervious to sandpaper. For these, my wife gave me a quick and easy solution that worked like a miracle. Get the label part off first with water to expose the adhesive. Fold a paper towel or length of toilet paper and dampen it with acetone (nail polisher remover) and wrap it around the bottle. Leave it there for an hour or two. Even with TP, when you come back, it'll rub right off. Rinse well and done.

 

[Ms. Trixy]

I never thought about pre-made ejuice labels before. I've just been throwing them in the recycle container with the lid off. There's so much scattered material in that truck I can't be traced. Putting it in the big alley trash narrows it down to about 4 homes, including mine. And I never throw it in a sealed garbage bag. But, attempting to remove the label is the prudent thing to do.

 

[KDodds]

I never thought about pre-made ejuice labels before. I've just been throwing them in the recycle container with the lid off. There's so much scattered material in that truck I can't be traced. Putting it in the big alley trash narrows it down to about 4 homes, including mine. And I never throw it in a sealed garbage bag. But, attempting to remove the label is the prudent thing to do.

Glass can be reused basically forever, shame to put it in a landfill or let it get remelted through recycling, polluting the environment even worse, especially when you consider the emissions of the vehicles that get it from point a to b to c. Unfortunate if you have no use for them, but the better bet is to toss them in the trash rather than recycling. Plastics, too, the chemicals and emissions to accomplish that are greater than to create new. Aluminum, OTOH, that's worth recycling.

 

[Ms. Trixy]

Glass can be reused basically forever, shame to put it in a landfill or let it get remelted through recycling, polluting the environment even worse, especially when you consider the emissions of the vehicles that get it from point a to b to c. Unfortunate if you have no use for them, but the better bet is to toss them in the trash rather than recycling. Plastics, too, the chemicals and emissions to accomplish that are greater than to create new. Aluminum, OTOH, that's worth recycling.

I wouldn't just toss glass bottles. I'd properly clean them before tossing premade eliquid. Same with plastic. I have enough bottles and plastic to last me a good, long time. I hear your case, however.

 

[KDodds]

Yeah, keeping them is the best option, absolutely. But if you have no use for them, throwing them away is more enviro-friendly than recycling. Cleaning them... well, I do it, but I don't like it. I consistently worry about the residual nicotine entering the water cycle. I know it's a negligible amount, but still.

 

[AndriaD]

Yeah, keeping them is the best option, absolutely. But if you have no use for them, throwing them away is more enviro-friendly than recycling. Cleaning them... well, I do it, but I don't like it. I consistently worry about the residual nicotine entering the water cycle. I know it's a negligible amount, but still.

You know that's a ridiculous thing worry about, don't you? Nicotine is a natural component of PLANTS. There's nothing artificial about it. It's completely organic, and will degrade just as any other organic will do.

Andria

 

[KDodds]

You know that's a ridiculous thing worry about, don't you? Nicotine is a natural component of PLANTS. There's nothing artificial about it. It's completely organic, and will degrade just as any other organic will do.

Andria

It is and it isn't. If it's just me dumping miniscule amounts of nic, most likely no harm, no foul. But the next guy, and the next guy... Nicotine is a natural pesticide. And while trace amounts may not effect vertebrates, it might effect insects. Good? Well, no. Lots of fish and frogs and turtles rely on insects for food, and herons and cranes and raccoons and so one rely on the fish and frogs and turtles. So yeah, I'm not worried about the amount I dump doing any harm, I worry that I'm not the only one dumping.