Ethical reagent disposal

[Cory]

Ive heard you should put your old reagents in bleach to destroy it and then down the drain. True?

What should you do with the sample when your done? And expired reagents?

 

[GatorGuys]

I'd be leery of combining anything with bleach as you can easily accidentally make some nasty toxins... Instead, I'd just dilute with LOTS of water.

 

[tdileo]

I think it would depend on what kind it is specifically. Some would need so much water you would seriously need a firehose to do it in a timely manner lol

 

[Cory]

I'd be leery of combining anything with bleach as you can easily accidentally make some nasty toxins... Instead, I'd just dilute with LOTS of water.

Ive worried this too. But its still unethical if the reagent is bad for the environment, of which im making the assumption they are.

Eventually it makes it way into everything. For example glyphosate pesticides are in the tap water, on food, ive read and they make their way to coral reefs and kill them, but thats from farming not reef keeping.

 

[Larry L]

I'm not a chemist but I know mixing bleach with the wrong stuff can be dangerous. I would not put bleach into anything unless I knew exactly what was in it and how it would react with the bleach. For example Wikipedia says:

mixing an acid cleaner with sodium hypochlorite bleach generates toxic chlorine gas. Mixing bleach with amines (for example, cleaning products containing ammonia or related compounds and biological materials such as urine) produces nitrogen trichloride. This gaseous product can cause acute lung injury.

I'm not sure how harmful any of the test reagents actually are. If you really want to make sure the test reagents are chemically inert and non-toxic before you pour them down the drain, I'd try contacting the manufacturer and ask them what (if anything) can safely be used to do that.

 

[Cory]

I'm not a chemist but I know mixing bleach with the wrong stuff can be dangerous. I would not put bleach into anything unless I knew exactly what was in it and how it would react with the bleach. For example Wikipedia says:



I'm not sure how harmful any of the test reagents actually are. If you really want to make sure the test reagents are chemically inert and non-toxic before you pour them down the drain, I'd try contacting the manufacturer and ask them what (if anything) can safely be used to do that.

Yeah thats pretty dangerous. Perhaps peroxide is a better choice. Or heating it up with a heat gun? Lol

 

[Ocelaris]

The solution to pollution is dilution. We dump way more down the drain after testing than we ever do throwing them away. Most are highly basic or acidic to change colors. Just dilute them well, as it's an inconsequential amount compared to our normal use.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ive heard you should put your old reagents in bleach to destroy it and then down the drain. True?

What should you do with the sample when your done? And expired reagents?

Depends on the reagent. Bleach won't do anything for some of them. Most are best taken to a local waste collection day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not a chemist but I know mixing bleach with the wrong stuff can be dangerous. I would not put bleach into anything unless I knew exactly what was in it and how it would react with the bleach. For example Wikipedia says:



I'm not sure how harmful any of the test reagents actually are. If you really want to make sure the test reagents are chemically inert and non-toxic before you pour them down the drain, I'd try contacting the manufacturer and ask them what (if anything) can safely be used to do that.

Hopefully they are evolving to be safer, but some historically have been pretty toxic, containing mercury metal (Nessler ammonia kits) or cadmium metal (some nitrate kits).

 

[Cory]

Hopefully they are evolving to be safer, but some historically have been pretty toxic, containing mercury metal (Nessler ammonia kits) or cadmium metal (some nitrate kits).

I guess i wont be shaking ammonia test kits with my finger as a cover! Mercury isnt good for the body.