"Pylls, Barry" wrote in message
...
Gabby wrote:
I've had some of my Tupperware for over 20 years and have not experienced
it
much. I've found though that it is usually the items kept in high
cupboards
& not used much. They don't get washed as often, for obvious reasons,
and
tend to accumulate whatever grease is in the air. My worst experience
with
the phenomenon was with Frig-o seal containers. Again, the baking soda
paste worked well.

Yes, I too thought that it may just pick up grease in the air. The
margarine
tubs and tub lids do not do this, however, and neither does the body of
the
rubbermaid container. That's why I was being cautious about the
possibility
that the rubbermaid lid is simply secreting it. If this is true, then
having
seldomly cleaned lids on a top cupboard shelf would also allow it to
accumulate.

Thanks for the baking soda tip.

I don't think it's secretion but rather the different type of plastic which
seems to latch on to whatever is in the air. My very first experience with
the stickiness was with an old 'cake taker', an item that had a rubbery feel
to it, similar to that of the seals. That's how I discovered the baking
soda trick. The sticky film came right off the cake taker and left it
almost as good as new.

Gabby

Curly Sue wrote:
On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 02:40:32 -0500, "Pylls, Barry"
wrote:


I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with soap
and warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular containers, frosty semi-translucent body and
beige lid. However, I've found usenet testimonies of the
longevity of rubbermaid tupperware. Does anyone else experience
this?


Do you wash them in the dishwasher? This seems to help.


I don't have a dishwasher, but I scrub them in hot soapy water
with a cloth and a scrub brush with plastic bristles. It helps
for a while, but the stickiness comes back again. Cleaning them
off is not my main concern, it is more about whether the stickiness
is secreted by the plastic itself. If that's the case, I'd just
toss the container rather than have it get on food. The funny
thing is that my margarine tubs don't get this stick film, and
neither does the body of the rubbermaid container. Only the lid
does. However, Gabby came up with another possible explanation,
that the plastic simply attracts grease more than other plastics.
So I'll just wash it with baking soda as per her suggestion.

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
In article ,
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:


I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with soap
and warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular containers, frosty semi-translucent body and
beige lid. However, I've found usenet testimonies of the
longevity of rubbermaid tupperware. Does anyone else experience
this?


I quit using rubbermaid.

They leak.

I've switched to the ziplock and glad disposables.

I can use each one at least a dozen times. When they start leaking, I
throw them away and replace them.

Bags are good for some things, but I like the solid shape of a rubbermaid
container to protect the contents. Since I won't be turning it on its side,
leakage is not a problem.

Gabby wrote:
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:

Gabby wrote:

I've had some of my Tupperware for over 20 years and have not
experienced it much. I've found though that it is usually the
items kept in high cupboards & not used much. They don't get
washed as often, for obvious reasons, and tend to accumulate
whatever grease is in the air. My worst experience with the
phenomenon was with Frig-o seal containers. Again, the baking soda
paste worked well.

Yes, I too thought that it may just pick up grease in the air. The
margarine tubs and tub lids do not do this, however, and neither
does the body of the rubbermaid container. That's why I was being
cautious about the possibility that the rubbermaid lid is simply
secreting it. If this is true, then having seldomly cleaned lids on
a top cupboard shelf would also allow it to accumulate.

Thanks for the baking soda tip.

I don't think it's secretion but rather the different type of
plastic which seems to latch on to whatever is in the air. My very
first experience with the stickiness was with an old 'cake taker',
an item that had a rubbery feel to it, similar to that of the seals.
That's how I discovered the baking soda trick. The sticky film came
right off the cake taker and left it almost as good as new.

Actually, Gabby, the soda tip works about as well as scrubbing with
hot soapy water, meaning that it removes the film for the time being.
The problem I'm finding is that it builds back up in a matter of days,
even though not much cooking is being done in the kitchen, and the lid
is in an enclosed space. I'm inclined to think that it is secretion
from the plastic. The reason for this is because of additional
evidence that I've found just now. I dug up an old rubbermaid
container from storage, and the lid is a very heavy film of the same
kind of stickiness. It certainly is not slippery like oil.

The strange things is that not all my rubbermaid lids do this. The
original beige colored ones do, but the newer white lids do not.
Sounds strange, but I think I'll choose my rubbermaid according to
color from now on....

In article ,
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
In article ,
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:


I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with soap
and warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular containers, frosty semi-translucent body and
beige lid. However, I've found usenet testimonies of the
longevity of rubbermaid tupperware. Does anyone else experience
this?


I quit using rubbermaid.

They leak.

I've switched to the ziplock and glad disposables.

I can use each one at least a dozen times. When they start leaking, I
throw them away and replace them.

Bags are good for some things, but I like the solid shape of a rubbermaid
container to protect the contents. Since I won't be turning it on its side,
leakage is not a problem.

I use them to take meals to work in my bag. :-)
Sometimes I take soup or other "wet" stuff.

Leakage can be a real issue!!!!! I carry my books in there too.
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:
OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:
I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with soap
and warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular containers, frosty semi-translucent body and
beige lid. However, I've found usenet testimonies of the
longevity of rubbermaid tupperware. Does anyone else experience
this?

I quit using rubbermaid.

They leak.

I've switched to the ziplock and glad disposables.

I can use each one at least a dozen times. When they start leaking, I
throw them away and replace them.

Bags are good for some things, but I like the solid shape of a rubbermaid
container to protect the contents. Since I won't be turning it on its side,
leakage is not a problem.

I use them to take meals to work in my bag. :-)
Sometimes I take soup or other "wet" stuff.

Leakage can be a real issue!!!!! I carry my books in there too.

I know the challenge. Though I never brought anything as wet as soup,
I got very careful and habitual about packing such containers into my
backpack or hand bag so that it remained reasonably upright. For
mostly liquid stuff, I'd use a thermos.

Pylls, Barry wrote:

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:

In article ,
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:



I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with soap
and warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular containers, frosty semi-translucent body and
beige lid. However, I've found usenet testimonies of the
longevity of rubbermaid tupperware. Does anyone else experience
this?


I quit using rubbermaid.

They leak.

I've switched to the ziplock and glad disposables.

I can use each one at least a dozen times. When they start leaking, I
throw them away and replace them.


Bags are good for some things, but I like the solid shape of a rubbermaid
container to protect the contents. Since I won't be turning it on its side,
leakage is not a problem.

I believe Greg was referring to the disposable containers rather than
the baggies.

--Charlene


--
White Supremacists: The most convincing argument against the theory of
white racial superiority. -- Bayan, Rick; The Cynic's Dictionary, 2002


email perronnelle at earthlink . net

"Gabby" wrote in message
...

"-L." wrote in message
oups.com...

Pylls, Barry wrote:
I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky
for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with
soap
and warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular containers, frosty semi-translucent body and
beige lid. However, I've found usenet testimonies of
the
longevity of rubbermaid tupperware. Does anyone else
experience
this?

Don't they have a lifetime guarantee? Just turn them in
for
replacement.

They guarantee replacement for "chipping, cracking,
breaking or peeling" not 'stickiness'. When I've run
into this stickiness, I've used a paste of baking soda on
a damp cloth and it's taken care of it.

Gabby

I've never had a problem with tupperware and I have some
very old stuff.

In fact I bought a whole bunch of vintage tupperware from
Damsel.

I stick mine in the dishwasher. Never had a problem.

MoM

"Pylls, Barry" wrote in message
...
Gabby wrote:
"-L." wrote in message
oups.com...

Pylls, Barry wrote:

I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky
for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with
soap and
warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular
containers, frosty semi-translucent body and beige lid.
However,
I've found usenet testimonies of the longevity of
rubbermaid
tupperware. Does anyone else experience this?

Don't they have a lifetime guarantee? Just turn them in
for
replacement.


They guarantee replacement for "chipping, cracking,
breaking or
peeling" not 'stickiness'. When I've run into this
stickiness,
I've used a paste of baking soda on a damp cloth and it's
taken care
of it.

I wonder what the sticky film is, though. I store the
tupperware with
plastic tubs formerly used for margarine, and the tubs &
their lids
don't get sticky. I've heard that plastics sometimes
secrete a film
when they age. If it has reached that point, perhaps I
will toss it
rather than having the secretion make its way into my
food.

I would go to Tupperware before tossing them. I was under
the impression they are guaranteed for life for anything
except misuse.

MoM

"MoM" wrote in message
. ..


I would go to Tupperware before tossing them. I was under the impression
they are guaranteed for life for anything except misuse.

I was a consultant for 13 years and I worked for a distributorship for 2 so
let me assure you that most Tupperware items are guaranteed not to 'chip,
crack, break or peel' -- some are only guaranteed free from manufacturing
defects for 3 months. Those are the only things that a consultant can give
you a replacement for, otherwise the cost comes out of her/his pocket.

Am still not sure whether the OP has Rubbermaid or Tupperware.

Gabby

In article ,
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:
OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
"Pylls, Barry" wrote:
I find that lids for rubbermaid tupperware get sticky for no
reason when they are several years old. Scrubbing with soap
and warm water doesn't seem to help. These are the flat
rectangular containers, frosty semi-translucent body and
beige lid. However, I've found usenet testimonies of the
longevity of rubbermaid tupperware. Does anyone else experience
this?

I quit using rubbermaid.

They leak.

I've switched to the ziplock and glad disposables.

I can use each one at least a dozen times. When they start leaking, I
throw them away and replace them.

Bags are good for some things, but I like the solid shape of a rubbermaid
container to protect the contents. Since I won't be turning it on its side,
leakage is not a problem.

I use them to take meals to work in my bag. :-)
Sometimes I take soup or other "wet" stuff.

Leakage can be a real issue!!!!! I carry my books in there too.

I know the challenge. Though I never brought anything as wet as soup,
I got very careful and habitual about packing such containers into my
backpack or hand bag so that it remained reasonably upright. For
mostly liquid stuff, I'd use a thermos.

Just to be safe sometimes, I pack the container inside of a large
ziplock......

A thermos is a good idea, I just don't own one!
I learned to hate thermoses as a kid.
Mean kids liked to throw my lunchbox off the balcony,
and I'd end up with a thermos full of milk and broken glass. :-(
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

Gabby wrote:
"MoM" wrote:
I would go to Tupperware before tossing them. I was under the impression
they are guaranteed for life for anything except misuse.

I was a consultant for 13 years and I worked for a distributorship for 2 so
let me assure you that most Tupperware items are guaranteed not to 'chip,
crack, break or peel' -- some are only guaranteed free from manufacturing
defects for 3 months. Those are the only things that a consultant can give
you a replacement for, otherwise the cost comes out of her/his pocket.

Am still not sure whether the OP has Rubbermaid or Tupperware.

I was referring to Rubbermaid. They also guarantee their products for
life (excluding mistreatment, of course). In fact, they were quite
courteous are are willing to replace my 2 containers. I say, wow.

The person also explained that the plastic was a form of polythylene
(LDPE). I confirmed this at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resin_identification_code (the
recycling symbol contains the number 4). The problems with sweating
plastic doesn't seem to be associated with LDPE, at least so far as
I've googled; instead, they are associated polyvinyl chloride.

MoM wrote:
I've never had a problem with tupperware and I have some
very old stuff.

In fact I bought a whole bunch of vintage tupperware from
Damsel.

I stick mine in the dishwasher. Never had a problem.


It is possible that if you wash the lids frequently, any
sweating from the plastic might not have time to accumulate
to noticable levels. However, I found from the web that sweating
plastic is associated with Polyvinyl choride, and the Rubbermaid
lids are LDPE (a form of ethylene). While I'm not saying that it
is the case, perhaps the LDPE sweats slowly, and frequent
washing prevents it from buildin gup to noticable levels. This
is a complete guess, and could be highly inaccurate. Just
thinking about possibilities.

Charlene Charette wrote:
Pylls, Barry wrote:
OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
I quit using rubbermaid.

They leak.

I've switched to the ziplock and glad disposables.

I can use each one at least a dozen times. When they start leaking, I
throw them away and replace them.


Bags are good for some things, but I like the solid shape of a rubbermaid
container to protect the contents. Since I won't be turning it on its side,
leakage is not a problem.


I believe Greg was referring to the disposable containers rather than
the baggies.

Ah. Got it. Thanks.