I don't think we can really totally get away from this problem without spending a fortune in clay, or just growing directly in the ground. For all my small containers I use clay... those are cheap. But larger clay pots are outrageously expensive! I'm sure newspaper leaches its ink, not to mention whatever is in the paper product, itself. Minerals/chemicals in water... especially treated city water... cause PVC to leach its toxicity into the water. That's how I understand it. It's the worst. We're doomed! We can either go with the flow and use the least toxic items, or we can forget about container gardening and just grow right in ground... organically of course! Think back to a time before plastics and petroleum products were part of our world... there were a lot less illnesses and diseases... we are slowly killing ourselves with all our "modern" inventions and waste from those inventions, or pollution.

Just a little while back I posted a similar question in the cooking forum, I will put a link below for it. I think it was concluded that most people just use masking tape, some use freezer tape. I was hoping to find an actual label recommendation but wasn't successful. If I use DUCK brand masking tape and a sharpie, it stays on very well in the freezer and fridge, never loosens and falls off. What you can't do is stick it to an already cold dish, it won't stick. But if you don't mind the idea of a roll of tape and a sharpie, this works great. The tape comes off of the dish easily when you are done with it and doesn't leave an adhesive film. Just be sure to buy DUCK brand...or at least do not try the no name brand because it doesn't work so well. To me, it appeared that freezer tape was nothing more than an expensive roll of masking tape. I think the Duck brand is about $2 for a large roll and freezer tape is about $4 for half the size roll. Freezer tape is hard to find, you'll probably have to get it at some place like True Value or Ace Hardware. Here is a link that might be useful: labels for frozen meals

My very best day at a charity auction was the day I won a bundled item: P-touch label maker AND a shredder. What more could a wanna-be-organized person want? And I'll second the vote of appreciation for Mustangs' photo. Relatively new removable tabs are made by Post-it "Durable Tabs". Lots of colors and sizes. They are also great for a musician's sheet music so the performer doesn't have to struggle to turn a page in a hurry. Love those! Here is a link that might be useful: Post-it Durable Tabs

Best way I've found is oxiclean - add a scoop or two to really hot water in a bowl, add bottles, and let set. I usually forget about it and wind up leaving for a day or two, but the labels usually float to the surface at some point. If not, they always peel off nicely. If there's any residue, it scrubs off easily. Just don't let the bottles dry before removing labels, or you're back in the same spot you were originally... As a bonus, I had burned something in a stainless steel bowl and the resulting soot or whatever wasn't scrubbing off, and figuring the bowl was already ugly, I used it for the first oxyclean-label-removing experiment and it cleaned the bowl too! Also, the solution seems to be more-or-less reusable; if you have a bunch of bottles, you can put a few in the bowl, remove labels, and put a few more into the same bowl and solution.