Hey there!
Internet company I work for has these boxes there were going to throw out. I saw them and thought they were a couple of drainage holes away from being a planter box. They've obviously got the "danger lithium batteries" logo on them but was wondering if it would be okay to slap a food safe protective coat on them and use them for a strawberry patch or herb garden. I'm leaning towards probably not due to the ink and what they transported but I'm just looking for a second opinion. Thanks!
by redpandataxevasion
8 Comments
I would turn that thing into a planter box and put a big tree and perennials in that thing. The warnings just add to the charm.
I’ve grown tomatoes, onions, lettuce and few other things in these successfully. I took several from a company giving them away. Drilled some drainage holes and added a little reinforcement since the bottoms are fairly thin and dirt is heavy. Worked well.
Edit to say mine didn’t come with any warnings.
I used something similar which was for aircraft parts, it lasted 2 years outdoors and l didn’t even fill it with soil!
I use polystyrene foam boxes that hold my plants which are placed inside.
I mean it’s not like lithium was directly in contact with the box, it was well contained under layers of plastic and metal in whatever battery it’s part of.
I’ve worked in labs around a lot of dangerous chemicals that are transported in boxes like these. That warning is mainly for safety during transport so the courier doesn’t start a fire with thermal runaway. Store it next to the wrong box at the wrong temperature and you could quite literally have an explosion on your hands. If there was any harmful amount of it on the box, you wouldn’t have had access to the box in the first place. It would have been disposed of by a hazardous waste company. I’ve brought home a ton of pallets and other structural support from shipments for use in my garden with no issues.
This is a great find! Reinforce the bottom like others suggested and get planting 🙌
They’d be fine, but since they’re plywood, they’ll break down fast in the weather if the wood isn’t rated for outdoor exposure.
(Ink is on the outside and is likely carbon-based anyway, not a big deal. The danger of the lithium batteries is that if they’re punctured, they’ll catch fire. Since your box hasn’t been scorched, the lithium was safely contained in the batteries.)
can, yes, but I would strongly dissuade you against it. you’ll spend so much on soil, and then the plywood will fall apart in a year or two. better to upcycle it other ways, or pass it on for others to use.
I’d use this as a planter after drilling some holes, and giving it a couple coats of boiled linseed oil to protect it.
They are likely to be not treated for rot, and possibly treated for insects. As a result, I feel like they would rot out fast and also might have insecticide. I would use it for indoor storage but not exposed to weather and not as a planter just because of how fast it will rot out.