getting rid of the smell

I just stumbled on about 6 hdpe buckets 3.5 gallons each (remember i brew small batches). however, they all had basalmic vinegars, and olive oils in them. i will probably start working on them later this week/weekend to clean them up, but curious if anyone has good recommendations for de smelling them.  if i can’t get rid of the smell they will be used for other things, they were free, no big deal

I think previous stinky plastic problems were solved by PBW and sun.

awesome, that was kind of my plan was a debridement of the material, soak in oxyclean for a few hours, rinse, repeat all outdoors in the sun.

Using hot water and a lot of baking soda has been effective for me at removing odors.

i will add the baking soda step at the end.  we have one of those big bags of the stuff, leftover from when the dogs trashed our carpet.  i really am hoping to use these buckets the lids already have proper holes in them. my 2g buckets hold about 2.25 gallons, enough head space for a lager but not if i did a more violent fermentation.  also i think i am going to step up 2.5-3 gallons.

The basalmic ones may actually be OK for sours.

Nice tip on the baking soda. That’s another one of those “why the hell didn’t I think of that” moments that I always seem to have on this forum.