I distill around 350 gallons of water each year for consumption, and only trust HDPE Food Grade containers for storage of water. Check out the info at this website:
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/safe-plastics-for-food-and-drink/
Below is an excerpt. Note that "mold" refers to the manufacturing mold used to shape the plastic, and not to mold spores.
All food grade buckets are made of HDPE #2 (high density polyethylene) but not all HDPE #2 buckets are food grade. Buckets that are not food grade will out-gas and leach into the container, and whatever is in the container.
HDPE #2 buckets that are not food grade will have been manufactured with a non-food-grade “mold release agent”.
A mold release agent is what is used to help get the newly shaped plastic off of the hard mold that it was shaped from during the manufacturing process. Without the release agent, the new plastic shape will likely stick to the mold. Some mold release agents enable much faster production than others, but may be toxic to your health if later used with food stuffs.
If the bucket is marked specifically as food grade or USDA approved (or FDA or NSF approved), then it is food grade. Otherwise contact the supplier or manufacturer to confirm.
Unless those Sterlite containers are specifically graded as "Food Grade", they are not completely safe for water storage.
Here is where I find the more manageable 5 gal Food Grade containers for water storage. They are also stackable:
http://www.thereadystore.com/water-storage/water-storage-containers
Best wishes!
I was in Walmart yesterday and saw large (40 Gal) Sterilite totes for $9...I was curious if they could be used to store water and it appears they are!
From the website:
Q: What materials are used to manufacture Sterilite products?
http://www.sterilite.com/general_info.html
What do you think? I don't know much about this stuff...is this safe to store water in? If so this would be great...they are stackable, cheap, and in lot's of different sizes.
Are these safe to store water in?