Are you looking for free cleaning tips for yellowed plastic? I’ve read that hydrogen peroxide is good for cleaning and whiten plastic that turned yellow, but, not having tried it, I felt unsure. Also, I had no yellowed plastic to try it out on, or so I thought.
Are you looking for how to clean yellowed plastic? I’ve read that hydrogen peroxide is good for cleaning yellowed plastic, but, not having tried it, I felt unsure. Also, I had no yellowed plastic to try it out on, or so I thought.
WHY DO PLASTICS YELLOW?
Manufacturers add bromine to ABS plastic to act as a flame retardant. Over time, those chemicals react to the plastic’s basic polymers and turn yellow. Sunlight and Heat accelerate this process.
HOW IS IT REVERSED?
The process uses peroxide and UV light (either a UVA bulb or simple sunlight) to activate the reaction. This causes hydrogen to bond with bromine free radicals and restores the color.
3 Ways To Clean Yellowed Plastic
1- Coat your consoles with hydrogen peroxide.
Old keyboards are prone to yellowing and it is not an exception to vintage game consoles. Made from combustible ABS plastics, the use of flame retardant Bromine was necessary.
This yellows over time when exposed to UV lighting. Hydrogen Peroxide helps you to fix discoloration. It is also important to take note that some dissembling is required in the process of coating your game console. Put it out in the sun for four hours before cleaning it with a wet cloth. This works for old keyboards too!
A baking soda scrub.
Rub off yellowing stains with a baking soda paste. It is useful especially if you’re tackling on certain spots of a game console, storage boxes or toys
White vinegar and water bath.
White vinegar and water are all you need to keep the transparency in food containers! Clean them thoroughly after submerging your food containers in vinegar and water.
* Create your own cleaning solution made of vinegar, baking soda and water. This helps to remove yellowing stains from painted furniture in colours such as white..
How to whiten yellowed plastic: some items to experiment with.
Item #1: a blue plastic strainer, stained around the bottom, probably from some fruit like cherries. (I use these strainers to wash fruit and then to carry the fruit….) Okay, I poured some 3% hydrogen peroxide over the stained areas, and then scrubbed at the stains with a stiff brush. This worked really well.
Item #2: This is the biggie: a hard plastic mixing spoon. This is the type of hard plastic that you can cook with. Maybe plastic isn’t even the right word, I’m not sure what this stuff is called.
Anyway, these spoons do get stained, and I’ve tried scouring with the usual scouring powder and it makes no difference. This stained spoon has been bugging me for a long time, so I’m sure I’ve tried a number of things on it. Well, this morning I put it in a bowl and poured some 3% hydrogen peroxide in the bowl.
I noticed that I didn’t have enough to cover the while spoon. I went to get some more and then thought better of it: why not leave it partly covered — that way I could easily see if the peroxide bath helped. I was gone all day and came home to find that the portion of the spoon that was covered in peroxide all day was bright white.
The difference from the part that was not soaked in hydrogen peroxide is totally obvious. I’ll see if I can get a picture of this!
Item #3: This one is inconclusive: the lid of a plastic drink cup. The way it is built, it has some crevices that are very hard to get to,
and it always looks a bit dingy there. I poured 3% hydrogen peroxide in there and left that all day, too. The stained parts still looked stained, so I scrubbed with a scrub brush. I think it looks a bit cleaner, but not dramatically renewed.
Item #3 UPDATE! Now it is totally white! I refilled this lid with hydrogen peroxide and left it sitting next to the kitchen sink for a couple of days. I forgot all about it, but when I noticed it again, all the little crevices were completely cleaned and white.
Here are my thoughts about using hydrogen peroxide to clean and whiten yellowed Tupperware, TPU material, plastic utensils, and stained plastic dishes:
- Be patient. Use 3% hydrogen peroxide, but expect that it may take more than one attempt to get the stains off.
- Give the peroxide time to work. At the least spray the peroxide on and leave it alone for a while to give it time. Better, soak the item in 3% hydrogen peroxide. If it is a bowl, fill the bowl up. If it is a plate, find a tub big enough to hold the plate and cover it with hydrogen peroxide.
So, there you have it: free cleaning tips and how to whiten yellowed plastic!
