How do YOU get old labels off of recycled bottles?

[bismarkarek]

Personally I take my old bottles and store them in one of my primaries that I'm not currently using. Than when i have enough of them i fill the bucket up with HOT water and a bit of dish soap ensuring to fill each bottle full of water so that they dont float all over the place during the fill. than i just let them soak, racking out the water and replacing it with hot water and soap as it cools, I do this until all the labels can be easily removed, for plastic i simply peel them off for paper i use a potato brush (dish brush with stiff plastic bristles) to scrub them off, works really well too. Than when each bottle is sufficiently de-labeled I store them to dry on my bottle tree until it is time to sanitize them for bottling. I want to know how the rest of us do it, and if anybody has any tips for removing labels let us know. :rockin:

 

[MaxStout]

Soak overnight in water with a little Oxiclean. The labels just lift off. Some brands are more stubborn than others, but most come off easily.

A few labels are plastic, sort of like bumper stickers. Soaking won't do a thing, as the adhesive is not water-soluble. But if you fill the bottle with hot tap water and wait until the bottle gets nice and warm, the label softens and peels right off.

 

[slym2none]

Soak overnight in water with a little Oxiclean. The labels just lift off. Some brands are more stubborn than others, but most come off easily.

Yup. Any of the no-rinse cleansers will work, too. They seem to eat the glue! After peeling/slipping the label off, a quick scrubbing (I use a green scrubby pad) under hot water and you're done.

 

[kh54s10]

Soak overnight in water with a little Oxiclean. The labels just lift off. Some brands are more stubborn than others, but most come off easily.

A few labels are plastic, sort of like bumper stickers. Soaking won't do a thing, as the adhesive is not water-soluble. But if you fill the bottle with hot tap water and wait until the bottle gets nice and warm, the label softens and peels right off.

^ ^ ^ this..

Except I just recycle any that are tough....

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I just scored 21 cases of 500ml grolsch type german beer bottles. Nastiest looking bottles ever, caked on dirt, old beer in them stored outside in the elements for weeks. I take a large cooler and fill it with warm water with PBW. I soak 33 bottles at a time for 2 days. Then rinse and the labels just fell off. At this rate they will all be clean over a few weeks (as I need them). I am also replacing all of the gaskets that cannot be reused.

 

[Scriv]

Soak in hot water with Oxyclean for 20 minutes, they usually fall off without me having to touch them.

 

[bismarkarek]

cool i also found a very interesting thing online baking soda, soak the area of the label in a solution of water and baking soda for half an hour to an hour and most labels slide right off. Also one of my room mates used to work in the warehouse of a bottle recycling plant and how they easily get rid of the labels is using WD-40 they spray the label and it falls off as sludge, though not really economical it is a hell of a lot faster.:rockin:

 

[Homercidal]

Soak in hot water for a couple of hours. Don't wait until the water is too cold or it's uncomfortable to put your hands in.

I used to use oxiclean, but it leaves a film from my alkaline water if I leave it soaking too long, so now I just use water and it's almost the same.

I keep meaning to try adding a bit of acid to my water to neutralize the alkalinity, but I'm not sure if that would actually work or not.

 

[m00ps]

I also soak in PBW. It works like magic, the labels just slide right off when I pull the bottles out of the solution most of the time. Little to no work required

 

[Psylocide]

Soak in oxi for 5 minutes and this:

Easymode.

 

[afro_lou]

Ditto [emoji651]️