If they are the standard foam type, than no they are to porous to be able to kill all the nastys.

If they are the foam type, then just ask at the grocery store for a donation of some new ones.

Another holder might be the paper containers like the ones 5 Guys Burgers have with their peanuts. Just help yourself to a few extra.

Try the dishwasher?

dcarch

When we have our holiday church festival, we use those meat trays for packaging cookies. We ask at the grocery store to buy some but they always donate a bag of them at no cost.

Well, that is a LOT of work to go through! Especially if you can get a grocery store to donate some. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.

I would be perfectly comfortable using them for non food items, but then, I am not a Germaphobe, either. I would think that germs, (or 'nasties') left behind from people handling the items displayed would be of more concern than anything your cleaning process may have left behind. And how concerned is anyone about that? Who even thinks of anything like that when shopping at a sale of that kind?

ETA: Why not just wash in hot soapy water, then place them in a bucket of hot bleach solution, and let them soak for awhile, or even overnight? (They'd have to be weighed down). Then wash again and rinse. I would think the soaking would allow the solution to penetrate them.

Rusty

I think there are things, like these trays, that should not be reused.

And now that you've brought it up, I will certainly look askance at crafts displayed on those trays.

Yuk

Thanks for the info and input, Mama, Sushipup, Archie, Ruthanna, and Rusty! Sushipup, I do have a lot of those type of "peanut trays" but they're a bit small for the length of the bookmarks, but not the gift tags. Archie, we don't have a dishwasher except for DH. momj, most folks probably aren't concerned about sanitizing/disinfecting those trays, and don't forget the *yuk* factor when touching money, too.

Money, who has money!!!

I think you can buy those trays at Sam's Club, etc, and possibly at craft stores, but certainly online.

You can buy anything for money!

I think you can buy those trays at Sam's Club, etc, and possibly at craft stores, but certainly online.

But that's usually a lifetime supply. For a church rummage sale, or any purpose that would use less than a dozen, I'd ask at the grocery store for a 'donation'.

I think that what you've done to clean 'em up is sufficient. It's not like you're serving food on them. This coming from someone whose skin crawls when I have to touch a door knob or handle in a public place.

I think what you've done is plenty fine for using them for glue trays for crafts and that kind of thing, but I wouldn't want to be selling something that's nice. I'm big on reduce, reuse, but perhaps some cardboard from packaging covered with used gift paper, white side out (or pretty side out if it goes with the bookmarks)? Run a fat marker around the edges to make a "frame"--but let dry for a good long time before putting your stock on it. You could at least wrap the trays, or paint with some acrylic paint (it could even be acrylic house paint). In general, selling something, even at a rummage sale, calls for new packaging, or at least like new.

Thanks for the new comments and suggestions! FWIW, I carry TWO different kinds of sanitizers/disinfectants in my purse at all times so I think of myself as very conscientious about these things! lolam

I re-purpose plastic meat trays all the time for non-food items like crayons, beads & markers in my craft classes & I use the foam trays for projects like printing & gliders & also as disposable paint palettes. As long as they're washed in hot soapy water & dried, they're fine. 70% isopropyl alcohol or bleach would be the next step, if you're still concerned about microbes.

Presumably, nobody is going to be storing or serving food from them, so what's the worry?

& I am a bit of a germophobe - restaurants w/ bare tabletops, card payment keypads, smartphones & bathroom door handles are of far more concern to me, along w/ the other things mentioned above.