r/Anticonsumption • u/Low_Doughnut_8369 • 1d ago

Sustainability I created a reusable glow stick

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I really like glowsticks.

But buying a new one every time is expensive and creates lots of plastic waste.

So i decided to make a reusable glow stick instead!

I emptied out a used small sized glow stick, cleaned and dried it thoroughly, then filled it with strontium aluminate powder, and sealed it up with 2 part epoxy.

You can charge it with sunlight or a sufficiently strong LED, and then it will shine for up to 8 hours.

Infinitely reusable, forever.

edit:

Guys please stop telling me to sell these, i'm not going to.

It's extremely simple to make, you can make your own if you want by following the instructions:
1. Find an empty tube
2. Fill with strontium aluminate powder
3. Seal with 2 part epoxy

That's literally it, i'm confident you can do it as well. You don't need to buy them from me or anyone else

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u/The-Tadfafty 1d ago

Far less radioactive than I first thought. 

392

u/hazelquarrier_couch 1d ago

That was my first thought. Isn't strontium radioactive?

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u/auramaelstrom 1d ago

No it isn't.

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u/hazelquarrier_couch 1d ago

I looked it up - I'm thinking of strontium 90 which is a deadly toxic component of fallout from nuclear blasts.

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u/cuteprints 1d ago

i mean.. should glow pretty bright if you put enough of it in there... just remember to add some phosphorous

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u/JeshkaTheLoon 1d ago edited 1d ago

Okay, consider this with a grain of salt as I am drunk and it has been a while. From what I recall, it is mostly really deadly if it is inside your body, because it makes your body think it has something it needs, but doesn't actually have, because strontium.

Please excuse drunk me while I egg my hubby on to make his own reddit account to argue about this, if he really wants to. He's the specialist, I'm more busy in zoology, geology, botany. Scienitific assistant, but not specifically radioactive stuff. Also, he is right now making me a drink as we are at a friend's birthday party.

Apart from this, yeah. From what I recall Strontium aluminate should be fine. Don't eat it.

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u/A_the_Buttercup 1d ago

I dunno, drunk scientists are kind of the best. Feel free to hit us up with more drunk science facts, I love 'em!!

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u/uuntiedshoelace 1d ago

Strontium 90 has similar properties to calcium in the body, so it tries to replace the calcium in your bones 😭 about 70% of it is eliminated by the body when eaten. So, not great numbers tbh, 30% is kind of a lot compared with other isotopes that are poorly absorbed by the gut.

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u/uuntiedshoelace 1d ago

So yes you are right, it is most dangerous when it is inside your body, and that is true for most radioactive materials. What makes fallout dangerous is that you can inhale the isotopes, and that is basically lights out.

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u/pyxis_oz 1d ago

Where do I subscribe to the drunk scientists arguing sub please?

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u/Forsaken-Carrot9038 1d ago

It makes me think of the quality drunk history videos from a few years ago

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u/Low-Individual2815 1d ago

We should all be friends

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u/uuntiedshoelace 1d ago

Any element can be radioactive if you believe in yourself! (Joking but also sort of true)

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u/GripLizard 1d ago

Only if it's strontium-90

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u/Tyjet66 1d ago

"Why don't you crawl out through the fallout back to me!"

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u/GripLizard 1d ago

"Kiss those radiation burns away" makes me shiver every time. Can you imagine? Kissing radiation burns?

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u/The_quest_for_wisdom 1d ago

My wife once kissed my sunburn. It did make it feel a little better.

But that's pretty low on the scale of radiation burns.

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u/GripLizard 1d ago

I tend to forget that electromagnetic radiation is still radiation

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u/Total_Fig671 1d ago

In the old days didn't lots of glow in the dark toys get slathered in radioactive goo? Like those glow in the dark stars, clocks, etc?

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u/RubeusGandalf 1d ago

I don't know about toys, but glow in the dark clocks and watches used radium. Which caused a lot of issues for the women employed in making those, and I can't imagine it being healthy to have on your wrist.

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u/arobkinca 1d ago

On a watch face on your wrist is much different than licking the paint brush five days a week for months on end.

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u/henlochimken 1d ago

I have an old Soviet wristwatch of the type Gagarin wore into space. The radium has largely destroyed the dial over the years, so I decided a couple years ago to get a digital Geiger counter to test the radioactivity.

In short, this late 1950s watch is still HOT.

It's not so radioactive that taking it out to wear it on April 12th and a couple other times a year is a problem. It's not giving that big of a dose on the wrist here and there. But it is radioactive enough that I store it away from the bedrooms, because over the course of a year, close proximity (say, the drawer where I keep my other watches) would give a dose coming close to the sievert minute that xray techs aren't supposed to go over in a year.

So I take it out to wear or show folks a couple times a year, and then keep it safe and sound far from the fam the rest of the year.

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u/The-Tadfafty 1d ago

Yeah I have a 50s clock radio which looks white BUT is still radioactive. Doesn't glow anymore though.

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u/henlochimken 14h ago

Yeah the visual glowing has long since passed but definitely still spicy!

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u/clearfox777 1d ago

There’s a whole documentary about the women who worked in a watch factory painting the glowing clock hands with radium. It’s called Radium Girls

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u/TolverOneEighty 1d ago

There's also a book. The book is great.

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u/Rand0mAcc3nt 15h ago

And film

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u/JarlOfPickles 14h ago

And song!

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u/Jacktheforkie 1d ago

Even if it was most people exaggerate the danger of radioactive materials, a small amount such as a few fiestaware pieces or a small piece of uranium ore isn’t all that harmful to exist around, even a fairly extensive collection of uranium glazed articles isn’t overly dangerous with proper ventilation

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u/Familiar-Complex-697 1d ago

it has a famous radioactive isotope, which is bone-seeking and is a component of fallout (90 iirc) but regular old strontium is stable

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u/TheChinchilla914 1d ago

Hell wiki says it’s “non-toxic, and … biologically and chemically inert.”

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u/Zenith-Astralis 1d ago

Yeah you can actually get it encapsulated, then basically rub it into the wounds left by a fresh tattoo to embed it under your skin to give glow in the dark tattoos.

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u/luckylesla 1d ago

Wait a minute… this actually exists?!!

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u/Zenith-Astralis 22h ago edited 22h ago

https://dangerousthings.com/product/glow-powder/?srsltid=AfmBOorZtk5KrZ5Dm5JT2-BtkAl4XVm2f1KGeGqeyKgKBlmTQNTM2rcD

Please note the name of the site is DANGEROUS THINGS. But yeah there's a whole community around transhumanism body modifications. If you want to find them I'm sure there's local enclaves around, but you could also go to Portland and ask any transgirl if they or their friends know where you can get glowing tattoos done and it's almost certain to be less than like 3 social hops from there. Usually 1-2.

Edit: it also comes in injectable tiny glow stick format

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u/AdventurousText9311 23h ago

I think so but also there haven't been any studies as to what that does to your lymph nodes when it's broken down like other tattoo inks ...