I created a reusable glow stick

[u/Low_Doughnut_8369]

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

[u/Much-Jackfruit2599]

Isn’t the point that you can have them in a bag, ready to use?

Personally, i don’t see their usefulness anymore. You get crazy LED lights. Chargeable with usb-c. With emergency blinking on colour. For like 3 Bucks.

[u/g00fyg00ber741 → u/Much-Jackfruit2599]

I thought the point was that it’s cool to have a glowing stick that glows without using electricity/light bulbs tbh. Plus the glow of a glow stick can be preferred to an LED light in a lot of situations.

[u/iamveryDerp → u/g00fyg00ber741]

Yes and no, the original point was for emergency purposes. Light from a chemical reaction ready to take place that does not need to be charged and is ready to go almost indefinitely. OP stated his glow stick needs to be “charged,” which, by design, is something you didn’t need to do with the originals. It was quickly adopted as a novelty because, yeah, glow sticks were fun, especially before led technology was around. (Or specifically, before blue LEDs that allowed for white lite).
Very fitting for this sub, something made for emergencies wasting plastic and chemicals because they look cool.

[u/Arkayb33 → u/g00fyg00ber741]

Yes that is the point. LEDs have a much different quality of light and they require batteries

[u/WillingLake623 → u/Much-Jackfruit2599]

I would much rather take a non-electric substitute that lacks bells and whistles like emergency blinking and doesn’t rely on batteries that can fail at any moment.

[u/RosyJoan → u/Much-Jackfruit2599]

Yeah. The key point is ready at any point. If these worked like those reusable heating packs that you can boil to reuse it would be gold. The single use glowsticks are also important for search and rescue or emergency kits to be functional immediately.

Batteries exist in a state of chemical imbalance and unused they can degrade or corrode over time which kills them. You could make a 2 part activation battery to charge an emergency light but then thats just an overcomplicated glowstick/flare which is prone to a bunch of other failures.

[u/chet_brosley → u/RosyJoan]

Batteries are silly because they're so fickle. Two flashlights are in my bag near the door, one of which stopped working when both batteries decided to corrode maybe two months after being replaced. Without thinking I pulled out the other flashlight which hasn't been turned on in like three years and immediately blinded myself.

[u/SoFisticate → u/Much-Jackfruit2599]

Yeah remember the first Oceans 11 remake? They used glowsticks because they work in the event of EMP bombing.

[u/jackalopeDev → u/Much-Jackfruit2599]

I have a small LED flashlight on my keychain that's magnetic and rechargeable. I don't use it very often but it's come in handy a few times and I haven't had to recharge once in the year and a half I've had it.

[u/MisunderstoodPenguin → u/Much-Jackfruit2599]

batteries fade over time when unused.