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Elaine asked: How do I clean yellowed plastic to make it white again?
White plastic turns yellow over time due to a chemical reaction that occurs when it is exposed to light, oils, etc. There are a couple of different ways to get rid of this discoloration, ranging from easy to more difficult. Look through the methods to find one that works best on your particular project. Some are more practical for larger projects, while others are ideal for smaller pieces. If your plastic turned yellow from bleach or food coloring, those are actually dye stains. For those, use our guide How to Clean Food Dyes from Plastics.
Bleach Method
You Will Need:
- Chlorine bleach
- Water
- Bucket or large bowl
- Gloves
- Paper towels
- A spray bottle
Steps to Whiten the Plastic:
- Fill a bucket or large bowl with one part bleach and one part water. Fill it enough so that it will cover the yellowed pieces when they are submerged. Or, if the item cannot be submerged, only make a small batch.
- If the items cannot be submerged in the bucket, put on gloves, then soak paper towels with the bleach solution and cover the yellowed plastic with the wet paper towels. Press the paper towels firmly against the surface of the plastic and let them stay there until the plastic has whitened. Re-wet the paper towels with the bleach solution as needed to keep them moist. This can easily be done by putting the solution in a spray bottle, just be sure not to let the solution spray onto any surrounding areas or it may bleach them as well.
- If the items can be submerged, then put them into the bucket or bowl.
- Allow the items to soak until they return to the original white color.
- When they have reached the desired level of white, remove from the solution and rinse with clean water.
- Wash with a mild detergent and allow the pieces to air dry completely.
Sanding Method
You Will Need:
- Superfine sandpaper
- Water
- Soft cloth
Steps to Whiten the Plastic:
- For this method, the goal is to lightly sand off the top layer of the plastic that is discolored to reveal a new, white layer.
- Begin by wiping down the plastic piece completely.
- Rub the superfine sandpaper over the surface to remove the yellowed portions.
- When finished, wipe with a moist cloth to remove any dust.
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Comet Method
You Will Need:
- Comet
- Water
- Bucket or large bowl
- Dish detergent
- Scrubbing sponge
Steps to Whiten the Plastic:
- Start by moistening the plastic pieces.
- Place some Comet cleaner on the scrubbing sponge and start scrubbing.
- This requires plenty of elbow grease and time, but will take the yellow out with some scrubbing.
- When the yellow is removed, wash the piece in water and dish detergent.
- Rinse completely with clean water and allow it to dry.
Peroxide Method
You Will Need:
- Hydrogen peroxide (the regular 3% kind)
- Oxy laundry booster
- Sunshine or UV light
- Water
- Bucket or large bowl
- Rubber gloves
- Goggles
Steps to Whiten the Plastic:
- Begin by protecting yourself with rubber gloves and goggles.
- Fill the bucket with hydrogen peroxide.
- Add ¼ teaspoon of Oxy laundry booster for each gallon of peroxide.
- If the items can be soaked, place them into the solution and allow them to soak. If they cannot be soaked, wet a paper towel with the solution, squeeze it out so that it’s not dripping, flatten it out again, and press it against the item. It should stick in place on it’s own, but if not, you can cover it with plastic wrap and tape the plastic wrap in place.
- The soaking time will vary with most pieces whitening in 2-6 hours. The mixture will last for up to four days before it needs to be replaced. Retr0Bright has also developed a way to make this into a gel that can be spread onto the plastic. This is especially helpful for larger items.
- Set the items under a UV light or out in the sunshine.
- When the item has reached the desired whiteness, remove and rinse thoroughly to remove any remaining cleaning product residue.
- If necessary, wash with dish detergent and water.
Additional Tips and Ideas
- While bleach can be an effective color remover, it may weaken the plastic over time.
- Painting the plastic pieces (if they’re not food storage containers) with a clear acrylic varnish will help prevent them from turning yellow again.
- For plastic pieces that are discolored from food dyes, see our article about How to Clean Food Dyes from Plastics.
- For additional information about removing stains from plastic food containers, see our article about How to Clean Plastic Food Containers.
The hard plastic trim on my refrigerator has yellowed on an originally white refrigerator. I want to get the trim white again. I hope you have a remedy.
Our home is 30 years old and the heat/A/C registers were white when new, but now are an even color yellow. Is there anything to do to restore the original color to white…Thanks. Help me out.
Can anyone help with cleaning clear plastic that has yellowed from my shower?
I would suggest using the automotive headlight clear plastic lens restorer kits that be found not just at automotive stores but at stores like Walmart, Target, Meijer, etc.
I am a hair dresser, and after I would have someone get highlights in their hair, I would often have leftover bleach. Not wanting it to go to waste, I would clean my white tile floor and grout…it worked great. Then, I had some yellowing and some rust stains on my countertop; I used it there too. Recently, when there was the rusty/orange-colored stains on my hot tub, I used it on there; hot tub looks brand new!!! You can pick it up at any Sally’s Beauty Supply. Get the powder bleach (I think it comes in small trial packages) and a peroxide to go with…maybe 20 vol. Follow the directions on the package for mixing. You will need rubber gloves. Test in a small area, leave on for a minute, then wipe off; it may need more time, play around with it. It should work on the rubber on your fridge, and the plastic on the stove. Don’t leave it on too long. After wiping it off, make sure to rinse any residue off with PLAIN water; I would rinse it a couple times just to be sure there is no residue remaining. With any chemical you use, you don’t want residue. Good luck.
It disturbs me that hairdressers use chemicals on their clients’ hair that’s so cauctic it requires protective wear and can be used as a stain remover and whitener.
It’s not “caustic”. It’s oxygen and probably the safest bleaching agent there is.
I was trying to find out how to clean the white plastic trim found on the edges of refrigerators, stoves, etc. My appliances are nice and white except for that trim and it makes it look ugly. Any help?
I would comment that your directions for whitening ABS plastic is incomplete, and the directions may not be understood in the way you’ve presented them.
The peroxide needs to be between 10-15%, which isn’t something you can buy at your local drug store (at least not in my state), and the items to be de-yellowed should be under the UV light _while_ in the bath of peroxide or constantly being painted with the Retr0bright gel.
My suggestion would be to just link Retr0bright and not try to transcribe their instructions, considering the process is ongoing.
Most porous white plastics can be whitened with fluoride toothpaste and a little time.
Says it all about fluoride, yet people put that in their mouths…staggering!
I just bought a vintage home and the shower stall has yellowing due to age. Will this work to whiten it back up without having to replace the stall right away?
I recently purchased (second-hand) six very beautiful white PVC/acrylic/plastic chairs on SS legs. Some of the chairs however have discolored (probably) due to their age or perhaps being exposed to sunlight. Any ideas how I can restore them to their original color??
The plastic around the fridge door dispenser has yellowed. I tried bleach, Comet, etc., but with no success. How do I restore the white color?
I just finished rejuvenating my yellowed Brother PT-PC printer. All I needed was bottle of peroxide cream “developer” from a beauty supply shop, and plastic wrap.
After spreading the cream on the yellowed areas and covering with the wrap, you put the unit in bright sun for an hour or two. It’s amazing.
I have an old keyboard and it’s plastic keys have turned yellow. I would like to try the bleach method, but how can I do so without making parts of the black keys white as well?
Connor,
Do you mean that you don’t want to damage the black lettering on the keys? Unfortunately, there is no guarantee on how to prevent that. Instead, you can apply keyboard key stickers on the keys to replace the lettering if it gets removed, or you can write it on with a fine tip permanent marker pen.
Hello. I have a Black and Decker under the cabinet can opener that I paid 100.00 dollars for like 7 years ago, and now they are still the same price and even higher on eBay. I love mine, but it’s so yellow and once it was pearly white. If I can’t get it white again, I have to get rid of it. Please, if any one knows how to get that white again, please let me know. I have tried every thing on here and nothing works.
Which method should I use on the piece that covers the lights over my medicine cabinet?
I have a Sindy house from the seventies; it has been in the loft for about 30 years in parts and it is very yellow. I have soaked it in the bath with bleach, but it has made no difference. Any help?
I soaked in 100% bleach with no effect. Now, I am using 40 volume Cream Peroxide from Sally Beauty and in 24 hours of sun, it looks better. I put the part in a storage tub, added some water to the tub not touching the part and covered with cling wrap to hold the moisture in. Seems slow, but working.
Could any of these work for a pair of white Air Jordans, because they turned yellow on the shiny see-through part?
Michelle,
This is the article that you need: How to Remove Yellowing from Clear “Icy” Sneaker Soles.
I have a white ‘portal gun’ that as yellowed. It is electronic and as black parts. How to i whiten the plastic without ruining the gun?
Hello. I used peroxide and UV to whiten my microwave. The frame part was yellow and turned white. The problem was that the control panel that was the only white part turned yellow. Any suggestions?
I decided to try and whiten the front panel of my egg yolk (pre-white) bass guitar. 🙂 Safe too say, don’t use kitchen bleach; my bass is now one of a kind since my front has been shrunken. 🙂
The bleach method turned a yellowed knob darker yellow, almost an orange color, so be careful. It doesn’t always work. I think I’ll need to paint these now rather than try these solutions.
There’s no mention of using the sun to whiten plastics. I know it can be done; I came here to find out how long something needs to be in direct sunlight in order to bleach it white. Some of these steps sound a little hazardous. Always wear gloves when working with bleach!
What was the reply to Andrew regarding cleaning the air conditioning ducts? I have wall-mounted COM units and you would think that there were smokers in the house by the color they have now turned.
Thank you
Gerry,
If you can’t remove the item from the wall, then you will have to whiten it in place. To do that, the sandpaper method would work. Another idea could be to use the bleach method, but use a poultice instead. For the poultice, simply soak a paper towel or wash cloth with the diluted bleach water, wring it out so that it’s damp but not dripping and wrap it around the plastic item. Try to ensure that it does not touch the wall (or you could accidentally bleach the wall). If needed, use duct tape to hold the paper towel on the plastic. Replace the paper towel as needed until the plastic has whitened. Also, be sure to wear gloves while handling the bleach mixture, as it’s very strong.
Peroxide might work as a poultice as well even without the sunlight. You could use the peroxide or Retrobrite method as described for the most part too, but you would just need to figure out how to get sunlight or UV light on the wall unit (possibly by putting a UV bulb in a desk lamp that has a bendable neck or by carefully positioning a mirror to bounce the sunlight over to the spot needed).
Of course, you can always just try scrubbing it in place as well, just try not to get the Comet on the wall or it could damage the paint. You could test it in a small hidden spot first to look for any adverse reaction with the paint just in case.
The entire front of my white microwave has discolored over time. It now looks very yellow. How can I restore the white to it’s natural color of white so that it will once again match my white kitchen counters?
I have a baby chair that had a very yellowed base. I wiped hydrogen peroxide 6% on to it, covered it in cling wrap and stood it in the sun for the day. It improved a lot, so I did the same thing the next day, and it is so much better, not quite pure white, but very close. Thank you.
How can I remove stains from a vintage (Swartz Plastics Glen Dale CA.) plastic waste can?
Thanks!
Regina,
For vintage plastics it’s best to use the least agressive method first (in other words, not bleach, which can dry out plastics and cause them to crack – it’s unusual for regular plastics, however vintage plastics are much more susceptible to this). The peroxide method is probably the least aggressive, followed by the Comet method. Good luck!
How to a clean plastic slipcover?
I have a very expensive white electric stove. I burned something recently, and the smoke came up through the back vent and discolored the white hard vinyl/rubber parts where the knobs are. It also discolored the edging on the top of the oven door. I’ve tried using the product I use to clean the glass stove top, but with no success. Any suggestions? The stove is otherwise completely pristine, but the yellow discolored parts makes it look old dirty.
Should I put bleach on the white plastic parts of my bass guitar to restore it to the original white color?
You can paint the plastic with spray paint again. I paint air conditioner plastic with white color spray.
The white part on my bass (guitar) has turned yellow. Will the bleach method work?
I have the same problem. Did you find something that works?
ALL receptacles and light switches EXCEPT the covers are now beige when they were originally white. If we paint anything with white oil base paint, it will turn yellow. Microwave oven was white; now is beige. Exhaust hood on top of range was white; now is almost yellow. COMPUTERS, SEWING MACHINE AND OTHERS are the same???????
The hair bleach method works. I bought some at the store (cheap) to test it out and put it on for 45 min. Now I am going to get some strong stuff from the beauty supply. I think about 1:15 should do the trick and get me back to looking new.
Thanks!
Which method shall I use to whiten a white landline telephone? Thank you for your input.
Dianna,
It really comes down to what will be easiest for you – what materials you have on hand, whether the phone plastic can be removed from the electronics and rubber/decorative parts, etc. Any method can work, so just pick the one you like best. Good luck!
So what’s the best way to whiten air conditioning vents then? Seems to be a few different opinions? Many thanks!!
The plastic ducts on my air conditioner have yellowed in color from their previous white. They are plastic. Any suggestions as to make them white again?
Can I use bleach method to clean my clear phone case?
Mishal,
To remove yellowing from clear plastic, use the method in the article How to Remove Yellow Discoloration from Clear Plastic Headlights or the method in the article How to Remove Yellowing from Clear “Icy” Sneaker Soles.
Hi guys,
I have a problem with Hp printer covers & ADF units discolouring. Which method would you recommend?
Kind regards, Ramzee
I wouldn’t try anything with Storm Shadow because once he’s yellow, there is no coming back. Just let nature take it course and enjoy him once he’s completely yellow. He’s already brittle from the discoloration of age, light, carbon, smoke and mostly heat over the years and bleaching him will only make him more brittle. I tried putting him on a G.I. Joe stand and the foot just broke off like nothing. They’ll all turn yellow eventually so his value can’t drop that much over time. Keep your white plastic G.I. Joe’s in an air-tight and dark, cool place so that they’ll stay white even longer. 🙂
Could you tell me how to whiten air conditioning ducts – they have turned yellow. Thank you.
I am looking for a safe method to whiten the plastic eyes on a Tickle Me Elmo doll. Obviously, I cannot soak it. I do not want to damage the fur or the black pupils. I am hesitant to use harsh chemicals because my children play with the doll. What should I use?
Vickie,
Here’s an idea:
Cut a piece of plastic wrap and poke a small hole in it. Push one eyeball through the hole and it will expand to fit snuggly (don’t cut the hole to fit originally, you want it to be tight). Then you can use the paper towel as described in the Peroxide method (soak it with the peroxide and OxyClean mix and press it onto the eyeball). However, there is a chance that doing that will lighten the dark pupils as well, but you could recolor those afterward with a permanent marker. If you don’t want to do that, you can try mixing some xanthan gum into the mix of peroxide and OxyClean to create more of a gel consistency, which you can then carefully wipe onto the eyeball with a cotton swab, avoiding the black pupils, although again, there is a chance they won’t discolor. Also, when you put Elmo out in the sun, wrap his body with a towel to protect his fur from the sun (as long time sun exposure can lighten fabrics). Good luck!
Source: Instructables – DIY Retrobrite Whitening Solution
My garden tub has yellowed from the sun shining in through the skylight. It is plastic, as I live in a mobile home. How can I whiten this?
Donna,
The methods in the article should work to whiten your plastic tub. Select a method that seems like the best for you. If the first method you try doesn’t work, try another. Good luck!
I have a pair of expensive Coco Chanel glasses and the plastic turned yellow over time from cigarettes maybe? I was looking to return them white. How should I go on removing the color? Thank you!
I’m trying to figure out how to whiten ’80s GI Joe’s, in particular Storm Shadow.
Any suggestions that will work and not damage the vintage toys?
We bought a plastic bath and it was sat in the sun at the shop for how long who knows. The bath had a cling film stuck to all the plastic, which you peel off; what a nightmare getting it off as it comes off in little bits and the bath has a yellow film in patches everywhere. Any ideas what we can use to remove this? Tried many cleaners, even nail varnish remover and brush cleaner for paint, but no success. Help!!!
Patricia,
Try heat. Warm a small area with a hair dryer, holding it a few inches away from the surface and moving it as you would dry your hair. The film may be easier to remove once it’s warmed up. Using a plastic scraper may also help. If you don’t have a plastic scraper, try using a spoon or credit card. Another idea is to use oil. Put a couple drops of cooking oil on a cloth and wipe it over an area, wait a couple minutes for the oil to loosen the film, then scrape it off. If that also doesn’t work, some other things you can try are isopropyl alcohol, baking soda on a damp sponge, white vinegar, or mineral spirits. Good luck!
We have a very nice, heavy duty air hockey table. The top has yellowed a lot and need advice how to clean it without affecting the playing surface.
My Wampa from 1981 is yellow and he needs to be white! Any ideas?
I have a couple of 1993 Fisher Price Loving Family dollhouses and a few pieces that were yellowing after sitting in an attic for years waiting for my daughter to have children. I read about, then used 40% peroxide made by Clairol from a beauty supply store. It is a thicker, creamy product, so you can wipe it on with a cloth wearing gloves. It will burn your skin if you don’t wash any you get on your skin right away. I set it out in sun and the yellow came out of a test piece left in sun half the day. Now a large dollhouse is sitting out in sun, so we’ll see if it works!
Beth, use Lysol on the air hockey table surface. I do this all the time with a 35-year-old table hockey games with rods. I’m positive it would work for air hockey; just apply and scrub.
Any idea on how to whiten yellow plastic reservoirs such as brake fluid or washer fluid container on cars? I’m restoring a car to original and the containers are yellow over 30 years of use.