Eli5… How does a box of baking soda absorb smells? Does the stuff buried at the bottom absorb smells? Is the box in your pantry for cooking… Absorbing smells?
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The ability of baking soda to absorb smells is overstated.
Smells can be absorbed, though. A smell is a molecule (or particle contains molecules) floating in the air. If the floating molecule hits a surface that it reacts with, then it will no longer be floating in the air and will not reach your nose. There’s products you can buy which do this better than baking soda. You can buy products that remove humidity this way as well.
Baking soda that you cook with should be kept covered so that it stays fresh.
If you do use baking soda to remove odors, the carton should be left wide open to get the smelly air in. Then periodically you should pour off the top layer so that the layer on top is more reactive and less “used up”.
The last time I explained this, I got downvotes and people accused me of being an agent of Big Baking Soda trying to con people into spending an extra buck once or twice a year for this purpose. I don’t think baking soda works very well. There’s not a lot of surface area in the little carton for it to remove a lot of odor. I only use it this way if I feel my cooking baking soda needs to be replaced and I don’t feel like pouring the half-used old one down the toilet.
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